The Red-Head Club
by JjennamichiJ
Summary: A certain fiery-headed princess finds herself in Wonderland, where every Disney character ends up after their missions in life are over. The longer she lives in Wonderland, the more she realizes that nothing is ever as it seems.
1. Chapter One: A New Beginning

**The Red-Head Club**

Preface: Before I say anything else, I want to thank the people who wrote _When Curiosity Met Insanity_, because they inspired me to actually write a story based on Disney characters all living in one land. With that being said, if there are any similarities to their story line, I would like to apologize, because it would not be on purpose (except for the reference of Alice and the Hatter being together which is bound to come and using name that they assigned to the Hatter). Now, with all of THAT being said, I hope you enjoy the adventure that I'm hoping to put before you (Because for all I know, I'm talking to myself right now, and this story will never get out.).

P.S. If the title doesn't make much sense, try to look it up somewhere. It stems from something that the Peter Pan in Disneyland said to a little girl. I may post it… later.

**Chapter One: A New Beginning**

The room was brightly lit and colorful, holding only a bed, a table with various medical supplies, and, of course, the doctor, whose patient was just awakening.

"What…?" She said on the verge of consciousness, rolling onto her back, in turn causing her chaotic red locks to sprawl over the sides of the bed.

"'Morning, sweetheart!" The doctor said, with a grin that looked like it was always on his face. "My name is Dr. Joshua Sweet, and-"

"Where," the girl interrupted, sitting straight up on the bed, "where am I?" The girl was confused, wasn't she just with her family a few hours ago?

"We'll get to that part, to be honest, it's kind of lengthy, and right now, I need to check you out and make sure you're all right."

"But my family-"

"After we make sure that you're all right."

She didn't protest, so Doctor Sweet began his examination, taking her pulse and listening to her breath. Instead, she took in her surroundings. The room was small and tidy, and smelled of oranges. It was a pleasant smell, and it reminded her of the summertime.

"All right now," Said the doctor when he was done, "you made the journey all right."

"What journey?" asked the girl, her clear blue eyes clouding over with confusion and a hint of fear.

"Your journey here, of course!" Said Doctor Sweet, taking off his gloves.

"But where is _here_?" He began to wash his hands.

"People call it by different names, but for the most part, it's known as Wonderland."

She looked around herself. She had never heard of this place, had never been here, but it was so familiar to her. "How did I get here?" She asked, trying to compose herself.

"We all come here at some point or another." He said, starting to put away his stethoscope and clean up the room.

"Who?" The girl asked, looking out the window. She saw a garden, with vibrant flowers of more kinds than she knew. Suddenly, there was a flicker of movement. Were those flowers… talking?

"All of the characters of Disney, of course," The doctor said, grabbing her attention. Disney? She felt like she knew the name, but couldn't put a finger on it. The doctor continued "We all live together here in Wonderland."

He picked up a bag that was sitting beside the bed and handed it to the girl. She recognized this immediately, it was her satchel. "Now, I need to go tend to the other new arrivals, so you should get dressed before someone comes back to take you on a tour and get you situated." As the doctor walked out of the room, he smiled warmly at the girl. "Welcome to Wonderland, Merida."

* * *

"Now, you were just at the hospital, which is in the southernmost part of town," Tiana said. "and now we're in the marketplace."

About ten minutes ago, Tiana had walked into Merida's hospital room. She had told Merida that she was going to show her around Wonderland, and to follow her. Merida had hesitated. Tiana looked nice enough: She had creamy brown skin, black hair pulled back in a bun, big brown eyes, and a simple (but pretty) yellow dress. Her smile had seemed genuine, and Doctor Sweet had mentioned that someone was going to come and get her, so Merida followed her.

After Tiana checked her out from the hospital, Merida and she started their small journey; Tiana explaining everything they walked by and Merida taking it all in.

"That's my restaurant right there." Tiana said as they walked by a red building with _Tiana's Place_ written on the front of it. She looked so proud, and Merida could see why: The place had a smell coming out of it that was pure Heaven. "Down there is where we hold holiday events, over there is a park, to the left is the entrance to the zoo, and up ahead is the residential district." Tiana said, pointing at each place she mentioned. "Now, let's go get you settled into your new home."

The girls continued to walk in the same direction, down a path shaded by trees. After the initial shock of everything, Merida decided that she liked this place, and the people who she had met so far. Tiana had something about her that was enjoyable; an air comprised of hard work and independence that would make anyone respect her.

Both girls had fallen silent, and Merida began to study the trees. If she looked above, she could see the sky through the criss-cross of the branches. Suddenly, she saw a flicker of movement, but it was only for a fraction of a second, so she wasn't sure if she really saw it. She continued to look around the trees, and there it was again! In an instant, she had her bow drawn and her arm shielding Tiana, who started laughing. Laughing? This confused Merida. Tiana politely stepped to Merida's side.

"Peter, we know you're out there." There was another flicker of movement, and then suddenly, out of the trees, a boy appeared.

He couldn't have been much younger than Merida, but something in his demeanor gave off the impression that he was both young and old at the same time. He was dressed in a green shirt with pants that were a darker shade of green, the same color as the tops of the trees. He wore a hat that was the same color as his pants, but pointed at the end, and a feather was sticking out of the side. His red hair was peeking out of his hat, and a smile was beaming off of his face… Was he barefoot? He raised his hands, as if to show that he was harmless, and Merida lowered her bow.

"Merida, this is Peter Pan. Peter, say hi to Merida." Peter's smile grew wider, and he gave her a slight bow.

"Hello." He said, and abruptly ran into the forest.

"Who was that?" Merida asked, slightly distracted. Why was this boy jumping around in the tree tops?

"Peter? He's been here longer than a lot of people. He lives in a tree house not too far from your house."

"My house?" Merida didn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't an entire house to herself.

"Of course, dear, you don't think we'd make you live on the streets, do you? It's right here."

The pair stopped walking in front of a small house made of grey bricks. It was in a miniature, green field, and was surrounded by the forest.

"Well, now, I best be getting back to the kitchen. Can't leave Naveen in there for too long by himself." She winked at Merida, and then turned and left. Merida, left alone, walked into her new home. The floors were made of a light wood, and the walls were all cream colored. There was already furniture in place for her, and she could not have been happier with the style if she had picked everything out herself. Unpacking what little she had with her, she absently wondered how everyone here seemed to already know her.

As the day turned to dusk, Merida grabbed her bow and arrows and set out to explore the forest surrounding her home. The air was warm, giving her skin a pleasant feeling where it was exposed. She hadn't been walking long when she noticed movement in the brush. She briefly wondered whether or not she was allowed to hunt here, but she decided it was okay, as long as she didn't shoot anything that talked. Besides, she was fairly certain that to get something from one of the stores in the marketplace, she had to buy it, and as far as she knew, she didn't have any money. She stepped closer to the rustling, slowly drawing her bow to shoot.

"Hello!"

Merida whipped around and found herself nose to nose with an upside-down Peter, who was hanging from the trees. He was too close, too close, too close. She backed away a half a step.

"You probably just scared my dinner away."

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said, his face looked like a small puppy. There was a short silence as Peter stared at Merida with curiosity, and she stared back with confusion.

"How are you… doing… that…?" Merida asked him.

"Doing what?"

"Hanging upside down!" What else would she be talking about? "Are you part monkey or something?"

"Nope!" Peter said, and he let go of the tree.

Merida's breath caught in her throat, but he landed on his feet. Another long second passed of quiet staring

"What?" Merida asked, a bit uneasy.

"We should be friends." Peter said, still staring at her.

"Uhm.. Okay."

"Well, this is why," Said Peter, listing off his reasons on his fingers "You have a bow, and I have a bow. You have red hair, and I have red hair. You like the forest, and I like the forest." Merida stared at him, but Peter seemed to be completely serious.

"How old are you?" She asked him, becoming unsure of his mental stability.

"How old are _you_?" Peter asked, a smile playing across his face.

"I asked you first!" Merida retorted quickly. Peter sat Indian-style, crossed his arms, and smiled wider.

"Not until you tell me how old you are!" Merida sighed, groaned, and lowered herself onto the ground.

"I'm eighteen years old." She said.

"Awww!" Peter said, pulling a chunk of grass out of the ground and tossing it to the side.

"What now?" Merida asked, a bit beside herself.

"Well, I'm only seventeen." Peter said, looking up at her. Damn those puppy dog eyes. Merida softened her voice.

"Well, why does that upset you?"

"Because you're a whole year older than me and now you won't want to be friends with me." Merida couldn't help but smile.

"Why would you think that?" Peter sulked.

"Because you're older, and older people don't like younger people."

"But you're only a year younger than me, so you're practically the same age as me." Peter shot up.

"Really?" Merida smiled and got up.

"Sure, why not?" Peter beamed.

"This is gonna be _so much fun_! You'll see!" and with that, he ran into the forest. Merida stood where she was for a little while, and then began to walk home.

"What a strange boy." She thought to herself, shaking her head.


	2. Chapter Two: New Friends and Faces

**Chapter Two: New Friends and New Faces**

"So, in a nutshell, Shang didn't know I was a woman until a few months into our acquaintance." Mulan said, and all of the girls broke out laughing.

It had been a few weeks since Merida settled into life in Wonderland, and she had gotten to know more people. As a result, her kitchen was full of food that the four girls had made.

"Yeah, I know, but I'm not the only one with a strange story of how I met my husband. Right, Tiana?" Tiana looked over her shoulder as she pulled another tray of pastries out of the oven.

"Yeah, I had to kiss a frog a few times to find him!"

Again, the girls couldn't contain themselves.

"Well, at least yours didn't break into your bedroom and convince you to fly on his magic carpet!" Jasmine said while picking up another treat.

"Tiana, you have to be one of the best cooks I've ever met." Merida said while biting into a miniature pie.

"Hey, what about you, Merida?" Tiana said while putting the pastries on a stand.

"Yeah!" said Jasmine, leaning forward. "Do you have a guy?" Merida giggled.

"Well, I was almost forced to marry someone when I didn't want to, but besides that, no."

"Well, Peter seems to have a thing for her."

"Tiana!" Peter was like a little brother, or a friend. Definitely not anything more than that.

"Well, I heard somewhere that Jim Hawkins has a thing for her!" This made Merida color deeply.

"Who? I don't even know who that is!"

"Well, he certainly knows you." Said Mulan, smiling at her.

Merida had to think about this one. Jim Hawkins? The name didn't sound familiar.

"Come on, Merida, you have to have seen him. Young guy, brown hair, pony tail, earring, kind of looks like a pirate-explorer." Merida shook her head

"Sorry, nope. But if it makes you feel better, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him."

After the girls were gone and the kitchen was clean, Merida looked around herself. The clock read 1:30, the fridge and pantry were empty, and she hadn't eaten any "real" food all day. She sighed and got up. This meant that she had to go shopping.

As she approached the marketplace, she looked down the street and read to store signs. Bookseller, Tiana's Place, Snuggly Duckling Bar, Andalasia Fashions, Ariel's Antiques… She walked up to the middle of the square, where there was a cluster of carts holding food, and grabbed what she needed.

As she turned to make her way home, she bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" She said as she looked up, but what she saw stunned her.

"It's no problem, Merida." Jim Hawkins said, smiling at her. He was probably her age, she guessed, maybe a year or two older than her. He was exactly as her friends had described him, only they forgot to include how amazingly handsome he was.

"I," Merida stuttered, "I have to go." And with that, she rushed away.

Walking back, she tried to regain her senses. She couldn't let this man take away her words, and she wasn't going to next time. _Next time_? She told herself to stop thinking as if she was going to see him soon.

Her thoughts were so distracted that she didn't even see Peter floating above her.

"Oh, you brought back food!" Peter said as he grabbed the bags from her, and she nearly fell over.

"You- You scared me!" Merida said as she caught her breath. Peter laughed at her, but waited for her until she seemed okay.

"Give me back those!" She said as she reached for the bags, but Peter pulled them away.

"Nope, sorry, Mer, I can't let you carry these. What would people think of me?" He said, making an over-exaggerated face of worry.

"Well, at least-" but in the middle of this sentence, Merida really looked at Peter, and her jaw fell. Peter looked at her, worried.

"Mer? Merida?"

"You-" She stammered. "You're _flying_!" Peter laughed so hard he nearly fell to the ground.

"'Course I'm flying, can't you?" Merida just shook her head. Of course he can fly, of course he can. "Well that's boring." Peter said, looking sorry for her.

Merida sighed and began to walk towards her house, and Peter flew above her, doing flips and twists in the air. As they went, Peter told her about what he did that day, which was the usual: Shooting trees and targets in the forest with his bow, jumping around in the trees, swimming, ect.

As they approached Merida's house, Peter dropped to the floor and opened her door of her. She raised her eyebrows at him, and he gave her a mock bow. They both laughed and went inside to the kitchen, where Merida began to unload her bags.

"Do you want to play a game?" Peter asked her, his eyes brightening.

"Only if it's one that I can play while I'm putting away what I bought." Merida laughed to herself, because his games usually involved running around outside with their bows.

"Yeah, I guess you can." Merida turned her head to him.

"Well, how do you play this game?" Peter's smile seemed to light up his face, and Merida wondered if explaining games was more fun for him than playing them.

"Well, it doesn't have a name, and I don't know if you'd really call it a _game_, but I saw Rapunzel and Pascal playing it, so it must be fun. What you do is, one person asks a question, and the other answers, and then the person who just answered asks a question, and the person who asked the question before answers."

"Sounds exciting." Merida joked as she put away a box of cookies.

"Yeah! Now who should start?"

"How about you?"

"Okay!" Peter's face was one of pure concentration, and Merida had to look at her hands to stop herself from laughing. After a few seconds, Peter's face showed that he had an idea. "What's your favorite color? I bet it's blue. Is it blue?" Merida looked at him.

"Now what's the fun of playing this game if you answer the questions you ask?"

"Well, was I right?"

"Yes, you were right, but now you have to ask another question, because that one didn't count." Peter looked as if he may protest, but he seemed to think the better of it, and began to think again.

By this time, Merida was done unloading her buys, so she sat on the counter next to Peter.

"Oh! I've got a good one. Do you like flowers?" Merida laughed.

"Yes, but I think everyone likes flowers. The ones that talk scare me, though." Seeing that a lot of time was going to pass like this, Merida settled down for an afternoon of questions and answers.

* * *

Merida fell onto her couch. Her afternoon had been full of Peter's question game, and he had only left when she promised to continue the game some other day.

She turned her head to look out the window, and saw that it was dusk. Was it too early to get ready for bed? …It was never too early to get ready for bed.

Merida got up to walk to her bedroom, but there was a knock at her door. She briefly considered ignoring it, but she decided that she should answer it. If it wasn't completely necessary, then she would tell the person to come back tomorrow.

She opened her door, preparing to see Tiana, but it was Jim. She stood there, a little flustered, as he smiled.

"Hey there, Merida." He said.

"Hi." She managed to get out. He looked at her and smiled a little wider.

"I was just passing by, and I wanted to ask you what you were doing on Friday." "Friday?"

"Yes, this Friday around six." She thought about it, and she couldn't think. Was she doing something? Probably not. Oh, well.

"No, I'm not doing anything, why?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to go somewhere with me." Just then, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye, up in the trees, but she brushed it off.

"Yes, I can do something then."

"Great. I'll see you then." And with that, he walked away.

Merida stood behind her door for a few seconds, and then went to go get ready for bed before something else happened.


	3. Chapter Three: AnswersThe Date

Hey_ guys! Just a little update for my readers. I have had two girls offer to illustrate the story! I'm really excited- Who doesn't like pictures? I don't how long it will take until the pictures get caught up with the chapter releases, but we are supposed to have a cover picture by next week. Also, chapters ONE and TWO have been edited and updated. Do you like the new format? Upon request, chapter one now includes a short description of Tiana. Please feel free to leave your guys' constructive criticism, I really do appreciate it!_

**Chapter Three: Answers/The Date**

Merida sat in Mulan's living room, fidgeting.

Earlier that day, the girls had all been drinking tea there. When Tiana and Jasmine had to both leave, Merida stayed behind, hoping that Mulan could answer some of the questions that she had.

She would have went to Tiana, who she was closest to, but she had found out that Tiana had arrived to Wonderland quite recently, so she didn't know much more than Merida

She thought about talking to Jasmine, who had been living in Wonderland much longer than Tiana and Mulan, but Merida didn't like going to Jasmine's house: Rajah always stared at her.

Mulan came into the room holding a tray of lemonade. She poured Merida a glass, and then poured herself a glass. Merida sipped her drink; It was delicious.

"So, Merida, what did you want to talk about?" Mulan asked. Merida hesitated. She was nervous to know the answers to her questions, but at the same time, she _had _to know. "It's okay to ask questions, Merida, there are no 'big secrets'." Mulan said, patting her hand. Merida took a breath.

"Why am I here?" She asked. Mulan smiled.

"Everyone comes here at some point or another." She said, sipping her drink.

"But _why_?" Merida needed to know. She was getting homesick and she missed her family.

"No one knows exactly why we come here, but there are a few theories." Mulan answered. "The most accepted among them is that when you're done with your mission in life, you're sent here." Merida raised her eyebrows.

"My _mission_?"

"Merida, haven't you noticed that everyone here has a grand story from their life before Wonderland?" Merida looked up; Mulan was right. Some people had gone on adventures to find true love, or in Merida's case, to learn just how brave they could be.

"Will my family every come here?" Merida was worried. After she had fixed all of her mistakes -as in accidently turning members of her family into bears- life had been going well for her. Her family had become extremely close, and she had given the three suitors a chance. However, she hadn't been able to feel much for any of them in particular…

"There's no way of knowing." Mulan said, and Merida had to clear her throat to stop her tears from spilling over. Mulan grabbed Merida's hand. "Many believe that everyone that they had previously known will end up here, but they have to complete their own missions in life first."

Merida straightened up. Yes, this made sense. This is what she would believe. She smiled. Now that all of the tough questions were out of the way, it was time for the smaller ones.

"How does everyone get their houses?" Mulan laughed.

"Well, that's a bit of a mystery, too." Merida looked at her, confused. "The houses appear." Merida's eyes grew wide.

"_Appear_?" Mulan smiled at her expression.

"Basically, yes. Every once in a while, a person will walk by a house that they have never seen before, and they will spread the word that a new house has appeared in such and such area. That's how we know that new people are moving in." Merida leaned against the couch. Talking flowers, strange people, and appearing houses. This place was so mysterious. "Is there anything else that you would like to know about?" Mulan asked. She was always so polite. Merida took a few seconds to think.

"What's Peter's story?"

She asked. Mulan looked down, and Merida realized that it probably wasn't polite for her to ask other people about his past. Mulan looked up at her, but instead of upset, her face was confused, and she smiled a small smile.

"I don't think anyone knows that except for Peter." She said, and Merida smiled. Maybe he would tell her some day.

"Thank you, Mulan." Merida said, getting up.

"Any time, Merida." And Mulan walked her to the door.

Walking home, Merida thought about everything that she had learned and decided that she was satisfied. She wouldn't lose hope about seeing her family again. However, it would probably be a very long time until any of them made it to Wonderland. That was a long time to go without a family.

But she did have a family, and she could see that. Tiana had taken her in like an older sister. Mulan and Jasmine reminded her of some of her cousins who made her smile. And, of course, Peter was always there to keep her company.

The walk back to her house took about twenty minutes, and Merida enjoyed the exercise. Besides, she liked where she lived. It was private, but not too far from the main stores and shops.

Once she got to the shaded path leading to her house, she saw Peter lying in the middle of it.

"Hey Peter!" She called, and he looked up at her.

"Oh, hey, Mer!" He said, sitting up. "Do you want to sit with me?" Well, she didn't have anything to do.

"Sure." She said, and sat across from him. Peter had a backpack next to him, and in front of him was a pile of berries.

"Want some?" He asked, popping a few into his mouth. Merida looked at them. Well, they were probably okay to eat.

"Okay." She said, taking a handful. She put a few in her mouth, and they tasted wonderful.

* * *

"Merida, stop fidgeting." Tiana was sitting patiently on a chair in Merida's room, and Merida was on a stool. It was Friday, and Tiana had volunteered to help her get ready for her date with Jim.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it!" Tiana had dressed Merida in a white dress with dark purple flowers printed onto it. Merida had never worn this style before, but Tiana had called it a "swing dress", whatever that was. Tiana was digging through a bag and pulling out small containers of different colors.

"Are you going to put that stuff on my face?" Merida had never been one to wear make-up.

"Just hold still and close your eyes."

Merida sighed, but obeyed. After about an hour, Merida's face had been made up and her hair had been put into a French braid down her back. Tiana must have been some kind of miracle worker, because Merida had the kind of hair that broke brushes. Her friend looked satisfied and smiled at her.

"Now, my work here is done. You just try not to smudge your make-up, okay?" Merida looked in the mirror. The shades of powder on her face looked almost natural, and she liked it.

"Okay."

After Tiana had been gone for about a minute, Merida watched the clock. Jim was coming for her at 6, and it was only a quarter to 5. She worried about how she looked, and knew that she shouldn't, but she couldn't help herself.

After a few minutes, there was a knock. She froze in- what emotion? Fear or excitement? Either way, it didn't matter because the knock wasn't on her front door. It was on her window. Merida looked out, and there was Peter. She thought about shooing him away, but decided he could distract her until the time came for her to leave, so she threw open her window and sat back down.

Peter jumped into her room, turned to say something, but froze, stared, and… blushed? He pulled his hat down and looked at the floor.

"Hey, Merida." Peter said, scuffing his shoe over the floor.

"Hey Peter, what are you doing here?" He looked up at her and smiled.

"I was gonna ask if you wanted to go shoot targets with me…"

"Oh." Merida said, "I'm sorry Peter, but I have to leave in a little while. You can stay here and talk to me for a while if you want, though." Peter's face lit up.

"Okay."

He sat down on the floor next to Merida. Did the boy ever use chairs? "Well, where are you goin'?" Merida bit her lip. She and Peter were friends, but she didn't know if she should talk about her love life to this boy. She decided not to lie to him though, and put on a smile.

"I don't really know. Jim Hawkins asked me to go somewhere with him." Peter looked through the window.

"Like… Like a date?" Merida was going to ask if he even knew what a date was, but she held her tongue. Of course he knew what that was. No matter how childish he acted, he was still a seventeen-year-old boy. That was a weird thought, so Merida pushed it out of her head and answered him.

"Well, he didn't say that it was." Peter was still staring out of the window. Merida was going to ask him if he was all right, but he began to speak before she could.

"Be careful." Merida was going to ask him what he meant, but he turned to face her, and she couldn't open her mouth. His face was the most serious she had seen it. There no trace of his ever-present smile that she had become so used to. This was the face of a man, and she didn't understand it. He looked at her like this for a few seconds, and then abruptly smiled. "Forgot to tell you, you look really pretty." And with that, he jumped out her window and ran into the trees.

Merida must have been sitting, thinking about what had just passed, for much longer than she had thought, because the doorbell rang and she shot up. When she opened the door, Jim was standing there dressed in black jeans and a purple dress shirt which complemented her outfit. Did Tiana have something to do with this?

"Merida, you look beautiful." Jim extended his hand. Merida blushed and took it.

They began walking down the path towards town, but turned left onto a smaller path about twenty yards away.

"Where are we going?" Merida asked, but Jim only smiled.

He asked her questions about what she liked and she answered all of them in good graces. After a while they reached a grassy area which had a blanket and a basket set up at the far edge of it.

Jim led her to it and helped her sit down. Once Merida was on the ground, she realized that they were on top of a cliff. Beneath it was a vacant beach. Jim started pulling things out of the basket an laying them out.

The evening passed beautifully, and the two were there for hours. When it was time to leave, they both seemed to regret it, but Jim walked Merida home like a gentleman. When they got to her door, Merida smiled at him.

"Thank you for tonight, it was wonderful." Jim smiled back at her.

"The pleasure was mine; I hope to take you out again." He grabbed her hand, lightly kissed it, and walked away. Merida carefully got ready for bed, thinking of everything that passed that evening. As she went to lie down for the night, she saw a shadow outside of her window. She looked out, but didn't see anything. She opened the window.

"Peter?" She whispered. She for a response, but none came. Maybe it was just a tree. She got into bed and quickly fell asleep.


	4. Chapter Four: The Halloween Costume Ball

**Chapter Four: The Halloween Costume Ball, Part One**

"But Merida, you have to come with us!" Jasmine whined. Merida twisted the phone chord in her hand, thinking. It had been a few months since her arrival to Wonderland, and everyone had the Halloween Costume Ball on their minds. Everyone except for Merida, of course.

"I don't know, I really could be sleeping then…"

"Is that Merida on the phone? Merida? Merida!" Merida rolled her eyes while the girls on the other end seemed to be fighting over the phone.

"Merida, this is Tiana. Now, we are all going costume shopping today, whether you like it or not. We'll be over just as soon as we find Mulan."

Merida groaned and hung up the phone. She knew that there was no getting out of this, so she tried to see a bright side.

Since her first date with Jim, she had been on three more, but he told her that he had to go away for a while. That was three weeks ago, and she hadn't seen him since. Well, two good things could come out of this: Either he would be there, or he wouldn't be there, but her friends would be able to make her forget that little fact.

During this thought process, Peter walked through her front door. Peter was his usual happy self, and he smiled at her. The two never talked about Jim, but Merida got the distinct impression that Peter didn't trust him, though she couldn't fathom why.

"Hey Merida, whatchya doin'?" Merida sighed.

"Tiana and Jasmine are making me go costume shopping for the ball." Peter's smile widened.

"You're going, too?"

"I guess so." Merida said, and then looked back at Peter. "Wait, you go to those things?" Peter looked at her like she had just said something crazy.

"Of course I do! Those things are soo fun! You can dress up like whatever you want!" Merida laughed. Of course Peter would like that.

"Well then, if you like it so much, you're going to have the best costume ever, right?"

"Definitely! No one will recognize me." He winked at her, and they both laughed.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Tiana. Peter looked at Merida, smiled, and then jumped out her window. Right after he did, the door flew open. The girls were all standing there, bustling with excitement. Merida sighed, but happily got up to join them.

When they got to the store, the girls ran off in different directions, grabbing dresses and accessories. Merida walked around the back of the store, looking at the different options. Nurse, squirrel, princess, pirate, flower… Tiana shoved three dresses at Merida.

"Go try these on and pick one." Merida laughed, but went into one of the dressing rooms to try on the costumes. She looked at the dresses, deciding which one to try on first. There was a dark blue butterfly, a deep green and purple that was probably a mermaid, and what she thought was a wedding dress. She sighed. She had thought about being a zombie, but it looked like that wasn't going to cut it.

Merida thought about what Peter had said about the ball, that it was about being something that you're not, so she grabbed the mermaid costume and put it on. When she looked in the mirror, she gasped. That had to have been the most skin tight thing that she had ever worn in her life. The dark purple top had no sleeves, and at the waist, the fabric turned deep green and clung to her legs until her ankles. She looked back at the other dress (the wedding dress was out of the question), which would have fallen far too many inches above her knee. Merida sighed, but walked out of the door of the dressing room.

"Tiana?" Merida asked. Tiana turned around, and squealed.

"Honey, you look so beautiful!" Jasmine laughed.

"She has the hair for it, too."

Merida smiled and quickly went back to the dressing room to put her clothes on. After another hour and a half, all of the girls had their costumes. Merida was going to be a mermaid, Tiana was going in a princess costume that she already had (She said that she was partial to it, because she met her husband in it.), Mulan was going as what looked like a cherry blossom (The other girls laughed, was this some kind of inside joke?), and Jasmine was going as a "peasant" (She used the same explanation as Tiana.). The night was definitely going to be a fun one.

* * *

On the evening of the ball, the girls went to Tiana's house to get ready. Merida gasped when she saw it; It was so beautiful. Tiana smiled at her.

"Did I forget to tell you? Naveen turned out to be a prince." She winked at her, and the girls walked in.

Tiana was already wearing her costume, and she looked beautiful. The dress was floor length and light blue, complete with a matching crown and heels.

The girls all got to work right away, Jasmine and Mulan doing their own hair and make-up, and Tiana doing Merida's.

"I would tell you that you need to learn how to do all of this stuff yourself, but you don't wear it all that often." Tiana joked as she spread colors over Merida's face.

Merida laughed and sat patiently thinking of what this party would be like. She had to admit, she was at least a little excited, because this would be her first one. When she looked in the mirror, she gasped.

Her eyes had purples and greens all over their lids, and her lips were coated with clear shine. Her hair was left down and untamed, because that's what a mermaid's hair looks like, apparently. She studied her reflection. Even though the coloring wasn't even close to natural, she got the impression that she looked beautiful.

After the girls were all done, they waited for their carriage to take them. Merida was suddenly thankful that she picked a mermaid, because she was allowed to go barefoot, so long as she had jewelry on her feet. The other girls were already massaging their feet and complaining about heels.

When the carriage came, they jumped into it excitedly.

"Where to?" The driver asked. Tiana laughed

"You know where, Major!"

"As you wish." He smiled at the girls.

When they arrived, the party was already in progress. There were decorations everywhere, and pumpkin lanterns were floating in the air. Jack and Sally Skellington were hosting the event, and they had done a wonderful job. Merida looked over to the left and saw that Alice Liddell and Reginald Theophilus seemed to be in charge of the music, and she briefly wondered if they were dating.

Merida looked around herself and realized that her friends had all gone their separate ways, so she walked over to the drink table. While she was pouring herself some punch, she heard a noise. She looked around but didn't see anyone in particular, so she continued to get her drink.

"Pssst!" This time, she looked up and saw the culprit. Standing on the other side of the table was a tall man, dressed in a smart black suit, with a red shirt underneath, which had the top button undone. His hair was smooth and shiny, and he was smiling at her.

"…_Peter_?!" Peter started laughing so hard that she thought he might hurt himself, but she continued to stare. Maybe she was still asleep, because this was strange, and weird, and wrong, and he shouldn't look like that.

Peter walked around the table and stood next to her.

"Like it? I went as an adult. I bet no one will know that it's me!" Merida stared at him, mouth open, trying to find words. Peter smiled at her, seeming satisfied. Maybe he thought that she was in shock because of how great his costume was, she hoped.

"You look really nice. I always thought you had mermaid hair." Peter laughed. Merida managed to close her mouth and clear her throat.

"So," She tried to find something to take her mind off of what was standing in front of her. "so what do people do here, exactly?" Peter smiled at her.

"What people always do at balls! Eat, drink, sing, dance, laugh, and have fun!" Peter got himself a drink and the two walked to a table to sit down.

They talked of people's costumes, and what they thought. Rapunzel had gone as a street rat, Kuzco was dressed as a female princess, Grumpy was a clown (The pair agreed that clowns were downright scary, and no one should purposely be one.), ect. After laughing at Tarzan's attempt at a Doctor Who costume, Peter smiled at Merida.

"Do you want to dance?" She laughed.

"I don't dance." Peter laughed at her.

"Of course you dance, everyone dances!" Peter put on his best puppy dog face, which was absolutely heartbreaking. "Please?" Merida sighed, smiled, and stuck out her hand. Peter jumped up and dragged her to the dance floor.

The two danced for a while, laughing and swinging around, until they were out of breath.

"I'm," Merida gasped. "I'm going to go get something to drink." Peter smiled at her. "Okay!"

Merida walked to the table and got a glass of water. As she was drinking, she watched Peter twisting around the party. He looked so happy, but then again, he always looked that happy.

Behind her she heard a noise and turned to see what it was. She didn't see anything, except for Captain Jack spiking the punch. She reminded herself to not let Peter drink that. She didn't think she could handle a drunk Peter.

Suddenly, a group of people dressed as pirates came out of the trees near Merida. One of them walked up to her, and smiled.

"Jim!" Merida beamed up at him.

"Merida, you look beautiful!" Jim looked her up and down, which made her blush. She looked around him at the group of people he had walked up with, who looked nervous.

Peter's warning from the first time she went out with Jim shot up in her head, but she gently pushed it back. Jim was nothing to fear; He was a nice guy.

"So," Jim said, smiling at Merida. "I was wondering if I could steal you away for a while." Merida smiled at him.

"Sure." She said, and she followed him away to where the group of men had been standing. She expected him to stop, but he continued to walk, so she followed him.

Again warnings went up in her head, but she pushed them back with more force than before. "No", she thought, "he's probably just taking me somewhere a little less noisy.". After they were a good distance into the trees, Jim looked at Merida, with an expression that she couldn't pinpoint. What was going on?

"I'm sorry, Merida."

"Sorry? Sorry for what?" She was confused, until she realized what the look on his face was. The look was…_ morbid_. Suddenly, the group of men from before jumped out of the trees, and everything went dark.


	5. Mini Story: Merida Meets Technology

_Hi guys! Did you like the end of the last chapter? So, I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but I've made it a goal to release a chapter every Tuesday and Thursday. However, I didn't think that you would get the full effect of the cliffhanger if you got the next chapter so soon, so I decided to release a mini story._

_I've been getting a lot of requests for things to be put in the story, and one of the most popular is how Merida dealt with the new technology of Wonderland. This account takes place in chapter one sometime before Merida goes outside to hunt. Hope you enjoy!_

**Mini Story: Merida Meets Technology**

Merida looked at her wall and scrunched her eyebrows. She was standing in her front room, staring at one of the switches that dotted the walls.

She had been standing like this since she walked in, trying to figure out what it was for. Did it open some kind of trap door? She looked around herself. If that were the case, the amount of them in this room alone was terrifying.

She flipped one and gasped. Above her, there was fire. She quickly flipped the switch off, and the fire died.

What in the world was the point of this? She certainly wasn't going to burn her house down on purpose.

Slowly, Merida reached for the switch. She flipped it, and the fire was there again. She flipped it off. She stood under where it was and looked up. Fire that could be turned on and off?

There was a small circle of glass, and behind it was some kind of circular ball. She walked back to the switch and flipped it on. Again she walked underneath the glass. She looked up, but looked down when it hurt her eyes.

Merida rubbed her eyes. How in the world was this possible? She turned the switch off again. If the fire was unsafe, she probably wouldn't have been allowed to move into the house, right? Looking around, it was evident that these things were supposed to be her source of light. There were no torches on the walls for the night time.

It was obvious that this place had superior technology compared to her old home, but how did they get it? She briefly considered that Wonderland was somehow in the future, but she dismissed the idea. If that were the case, she would have been told that already.

She walked into the kitchen, or what she thought was the kitchen. There were different containers of different sizes against her walls. She stood where she was for a moment, but her curiosity triumphed.

She walked to the closest container, which had two long doors. She opened the one on the left, and when she did, a burst of cold air came out of it.

She quickly closed it, putting her back against the door. She took deep breaths.

She tried to remind herself that she would not be put in an unsafe environment. She turned around and opened the door.

Again, there was a burst of cold air. The inside had various shelves and a large container. Merida braced herself, took a deep breath, and reached inside of the container. She pulled her hand out, and in her palm was a square of ice. How did they get ice? It was the middle of the summer!

When she opened the other door, cold air came out, but not as cold as the first door. This one also had shelves, but it had drawers, too. There was no container, though. She closed the door.

Merida looked at the container, trying to figure out its use. She listed the facts in her head: She was in the kitchen, the container was somehow able to make cold air, and it may or may not make ice. During the winter, her family used to store meat in the snow to keep it longer. Somehow, the people living here must this machine to store food year round.

Satisfied with her conclusions on the food box, Merida walked over to a container roughly a third of the height of it. This one had circles on the top and a translucent door on the bottom. There were different dials and switches against the back of it. Well, only one way to find out what those did.

Merida turned one of them, and fire came out of the top of the container. She quickly turned it off. She laughed to herself. It was evident that this was a stove that made its own fire. She turned the other dials, and similar things happened.

One of the dials was bigger than the others, and when Merida twisted it, numbers appeared on a small rectangle that was next to it. She had never seen anything like this in her life. She twisted this around for a while, watching the numbers appear.

When she left it on one of the numbers for a certain time, a noise came out of the container and a light turned on behind the bottom door. Merida opened it, and heat came out. She closed the door, and then opened it, and then closed it again.

Again, Merida laughed: A fireless oven. She would have to crawl in there to see if she could figure out how it was possible once it was a safe temperature.

The next container had a door that opened like the oven, but it wasn't translucent. She didn't know if the top had the same dials because this container was under the counter, but she figured that it didn't, because there wouldn't be much point in that.

Merida opened it and two drawers popped out. Both drawers had holes in them; What were they supposed to hold? The bottom one had a basket, but like the drawers, it had holes in it.

Merida stared at it for a while, but couldn't come up with its purpose. Because the other two containers had to do with storing food and cooking food, her best guess that this had something to do with cleaning or disposal. She'd have to get Tiana to come back over and explain what it did.

Merida turned to the square counter in the middle of the room. On the side of it closest to Merida was a container that was sunk into the top of the counter. There was a strange looking metal thing against one side that had a handle. Merida lifted the handle, and water came out of it.

She ran around the counter, trying to see where the water was coming from, but to no luck. She went back to the water and stared at it. It was a miniature well.

Suddenly, she got an idea. She turned the handle to one side and stuck her hand under the water. Slowly, its temperature rose. She turned the handle to the other side, and the temperature fell. She spent about fifteen minutes playing with the water container.

Well, if the last container wasn't for washing things, she could always use this one to do the job.

Merida went through the drawers and cabinets, looking to see what they held. The things she found she was familiar with: Knives, spoons, forks, napkins, ect.

One of the cabinets she opened had what looked like gauntlets in it, but she wasn't sure. There were different shapes and sizes of them, and they were all made of glass. The gauntlets back home were made of wood, but she had never thought that a different material would work better. Maybe it was easier to make glass here, so more things were made of it.

After she was content with the kitchen, Merida walked down a small hallway. There was a door on each side, and at the end, a small bench against a window. She decided to go through the door on the right first.

She walked into a small room. Inside was a counter with another small well, some kind of strange chair, a rack with small blankets on it, and a smaller room made entirely of glass.

Merida looked at the water container smugly because she already knew what it did. However, she felt that she still had to play with the handle. Like the one in the kitchen, this one could also change its temperature.

Next to the water container was a small dish holding a familiar object: Soap.

Merida pulled her eyebrows together. Surely she wasn't expected to bathe in this thing; She knew that she wouldn't be able to fit in it.

She walked over to the chair. Instead of there being a cushion, there was a lid. She lifted it. Inside was more water. Was this a chamber pot?

On the side of the chair's back was a handle, which Merida pulled. Suddenly, the water disappeared with a menacing noise. Merida jumped back, but after a few seconds, the water refilled its self. She smiled. A chamber pot that emptied its self…

She turned her attention to the glass room, opening the door and stepping in and looking around herself. On the floor was a circle with small holes in it, and on one of the walls was a giant version of the well handle from the water container. She turned it and water rained down on her head.

Merida looked up, coughed, spit out water, and then laughed. This must be for bathing. She would have a lot of fun with this.

She stepped out of the glass room, soaking wet. She grabbed a small blanket from the rack and dried herself off, then mopped up the water she had gotten on the floor. She guessed that that was the purpose of those, anyway, because they were too small to sleep with.

After Merida was satisfied with what she found in the small room, she walked across the hall into the other room.

This room was much bigger, and she recognized almost all of its contents. This must be her bedroom.

The room had a bed, a vanity, a stool, and small wall with two doors on it. She looked at the doors, and then slid one to the side. Inside was a bar with clothing hanging from it on triangles. Merida laughed: This was a strange way to store clothing, but then again, this was a strange place.

She sat on her bed and sighed. Last night, she had fallen asleep in her family home. This morning, she had woken up in a hospital. She felt a lump in her throat. She missed her family. She had to be strong, though, because she knew that she was here for a reason. When the time came for her family to join her, they would, and she would be overjoyed. For now, however, she would make the most of the situation that she was in.


	6. Chapter Five: The Halloween Costume Ball

**Chapter Five: The Halloween Costume Ball: Part Two**

Merida awoke, groggy. Something was wrong, and she could feel it in the pit of her stomach.

It was night and there were stars above her. She must be outside. Something in her mind was telling her not to move, to let them think that she was still asleep. Them? Who?

She tried to focus. She was sitting against the bottom of something and her hands were tied in front of her. She was sitting on… sand? And something about her clothing was wrong. It was too tight… it was… it was her costume.

Suddenly, everything came back to her. The costume. The ball. The pirate men. Jim. She stifled a gasp. What had he done to her?

Suddenly, she heard feet shuffling. She looked up to see two men on the beach with their backs to her.

"…until I get my money." She heard someone say. Not just _someone_. Jim.

"No way, kid, we want the girl first." The girl? Merida's breath caught in her chest. They must have been talking about her. Buy why?

Suddenly, both of their heads turned to her. She held as still as possible, trying to look asleep.

"Look," said the other man. "I've got to go to the captain and see what he wants. You don't let her leave, or we'll have a problem." Jim nodded, tight, and the other man walked away.

It was then that Merida realized where she was: Against the bottom of the cliff from her first date with Jim. She felt a sharp pain in her chest. What was wrong with this guy? She should have listened to Peter's warning, she thought. Peter… Peter! He was probably looking for her.

"Sorry it had to go this way, Mer." Jim said when he approached her.

"Don't call me that, you ass hole." Merida said. She had always been taught not to cuss, but at this moment, it didn't matter. She was angry.

Merida looked at him. He had a knife in the left side of his pants and he was leaning a few feet away from her. If she could just get that knife…

"Oh, come on, I was hoping there would be no hard feelings between us." No hard feelings?

"_No hard feelings_? What the hell is going on?"

"Wow, Merida, I never took you as the cussing type." Jim said, flashing a smile at her.

"I swear, when I get out of here…" But all Jim did was laugh.

Well, there wasn't much she could do, so Merida stayed silent and tried to form a plan.

Jim had only tied her hands, so her feet were free. She needed to get her hands free, which would require a sharp edge…

There was a noise in the distance, and Jim whipped his head toward it. He looked at her, and then looked toward where the sound was, deciding what to do.

"You stay right here. If you get up… Well, let's just say it won't be pretty." He said, turning to give her a better look of his knife. Merida made an angry noise, but pressed herself against the rock.

When he was a safe distance away, she looked around for something sharp. A few feet to her left, a jut from the cliff was pointed. She squirmed towards it and began to rub the rope against it.

There was a noise above her, and she froze. Next to her something heavy dropped down, and she tried to roll away from it.

"Merida, it's okay. It's okay, it's me." She had never been so glad to hear his voice.

"Peter! How did you know I was here?" He was still dressed in his costume, and he was out of breath.

"No time to explain." He looked down at her hands. "Oh, let me get that." He said. He pulled out a small knife and cut her bonds. Merida tried to control her breathing. She looked up at him. She knew that there was danger ahead, and these people still hadn't seen Peter.

"Peter, Peter you have to leave." He looked at her.

"No way, Mer, it's not safe." He cut through the last bit of rope.

"That's why you have to leave." Peter looked her straight in the eye.

"Merida, I am not going anywhere." He said, and then reached in his bag. "Here, you might need this." He pulled out her bow and handed it to her. She grabbed some arrows. He got his bow and handed his knife to her.

She looked down at what she was wearing. There was no way she was going to be able to run in that. She sighed. Tiana would probably understand.

Merida leaned against the rock, cutting the fabric of the dress off a few inches above her knee. The dress was still too tight to move quickly. She cut slits around the new bottom. Peter looked at her.

"Good thinking." He said, standing up. He pulled a sword out of his bag and stuck it in his pants, then helped her off of the ground.

"So, what now?" Merida asked in a low voice.

"Well, the way I see it, we need to go over there and stop whatevers happening." Peter said, making plans out loud. Merida was going to suggest that they run, but she knew that that would only be a temporary solution. Of course they had to stop this. She looked up at Peter.

"Do you know whose doing this?" She asked. Surely he had to have some idea.

"Well, not for sure, but I'm almost positive it's Hook." Merida pulled her eyebrows together. During her first days in Wonderland, she had been introduced to everyone, but this name was unfamiliar.

"Hook?"

"Yeah, he and I go way back. He's called hook because he has a hook hand. He's a terrible guy, he's always trying to ruin my life."

Merida looked at Peter. She wasn't sure what to think, but it was evident that she didn't know Peter quite as well as she had thought.

"Okay," Peter said. "okay, here's the plan." He leaned in close to Merida. "There's going to be a ship around the corner with about ten guys on it, plus Jim. Take out anyone who shoots at you."

"_Take them out_? As in, _kill them_?" A small smile was playing on his face.

"No, not kill them. Those arrows you have are tipped with a sleeping potion. I borrowed them from Hawk Eye."

Merida nodded. Yes, they wouldn't kill these people, no matter what they were planning to do to her.

"What are you going to be doing?" Peter looked towards their destination.

"Me, I'm going for Hook."

* * *

Merida took a deep breath. She knew that she didn't have much time, but she needed to get herself focused. Just around that corner were people who could kill her. Peter had already flown off to find this Hook person, and it was her job to stop the crew from leaving port. What had she gotten herself into?

She took another deep breath and then ran around the corner.

There were three people there, and when she was within their eyesight, they lifted their weapons. One of the men shot and Merida ducked. The bullet hit where her arm would have been. Another shot, another dodge.

Either these guys were horrible shots, or they weren't trying to kill her. She shot her bow three times, and all three of the men dropped, like she knew they would. If these people didn't want her dead, what did they want to do with her? She shuddered and moved closer to the ship.

Against the ladder to climb on deck, there were two men who looked like they were arguing. She shot an arrow and one of them fell.

She ducked behind a large rock. There was a shot, and then there were footsteps. She took a breath, closed her eyes, and fired in the direction of the sound.

At first there was nothing, and she thought she may have missed, but then she heard something heavy fall to the ground.

Merida jogged up to the ladder. Peter hadn't brought her bow strap, so she had to climb with one hand. She grabbed her bow with her left hand and began to scale the ladder with her right.

About halfway up, she looked down and saw three people running towards her. Hooking her right arm around the ladder to steady herself, she held her bow with her left so that she could fire with her right. She shot three times and the three men fell.

Maybe Peter was wrong, maybe there were more than ten. Merida tried not to shake and checked her bow supply. She only had two arrows left. If there were more than two guys up there, as was likely, she'd have to switch to the knife. She took a few deep breaths before continuing to climb.

When she hauled herself up to the deck, she immediately felt like something was wrong.

She looked around, but there was no one in sight. She looked down on the floor she was standing on which was littered with rocks. Slowly, she bent down, picked one up, and threw it at the other side of the deck.

As soon the rock landed, men rushed jumped on deck from the sides and the sails. Merida ran and took shelter behind a support beam. She grabbed her last two arrows and shot into the crowd. Somehow, she managed to take out three people, but now there were ten men on deck, and all Merida had left for protection was a knife.

Suddenly, there was a popping noise. A few men on the deck fell. The others looked around, confused. Merida twisted, trying to get a better look.

A man on a rope swung down onto the deck, and the remaining crew members rushed at him. Merida wanted so badly to see what was happening, but she didn't want to be seen. After a few minutes, there was a loud thump, and the deck went silent.

"You can come out now, mate." Merida was shocked, but she walked out. She knew this voice, but it wasn't one that she had been expecting.

"Captain Jack?" Jack smiled at her, proud.

"I heard some commotion, and thought that you kids were having a ruckus without me." Merida smiled at him. She had been under the impression that Jack Sparrow was a just man who spun tall tales and drank much more than necessary, but he was actually an adventurer.

"All right," Jack said, "so what now?" Merida opened her mouth to speak, but a shot went off. Jack grabbed his arm. "Ugh!" He raised his gun and shot up in the air. A man fell out of the ropes above them.

"Jack!" Merida gasped. He tried to wave her off, wincing.

"Happens all the time, mate." Merida ignored him, ripping off a piece of her dress and rapping his wound. By the condition of his skin, it was possible that Jack got himself hurt quite often. Merida wouldn't really be surprised.

After she was done, they both looked at each other. There was a door a few feet away from them which probably led to the captain's room, and it seemed to be the only other place they could go. Merida tried to open the door, but it was locked. Jack pulled out his gun.

"I've got this one." He shot a hole through the lock. Jack tried to push the door open, but it was stuck. Merida kicked it and it fell to the ground. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, aren't you just full of surprises?"

Merida ignored him and ran inside. It was dark, damp, and smelly. The two froze, listening for sounds of fighting. Instead, they heard talking.

"What are we going to do about this?" she heard a man say. That must be Hook. There was grunting and moving. Then something was kicked. Hard. _Peter_.

Merida moved to get a better look. When she stuck her head around the corner, she could see Hook and Jim talking. Peter was tied to the floor, and he looked angry.

"Looks like we're going to have to shoot him." Jim said. He pushed his face a few inches from Peter's. "Too bad you couldn't save your little girlfriend."

Peter's face was contorted with rage. He spat in Jim's face, and Jim slapped him. Merida tried to stifle her gasp of horror, but failed. Hook and Jim whipped their heads around, and Jim smiled wickedly.

"Come out, come out, little Merida." he sang, advancing to Merida.

Suddenly, Jack dropped from the ceiling on top of Hook, knocking him out. Merida didn't have time to wonder how in the world he got over there.

She pulled out her knife as Jim ran past her, but she only managed to wound his leg. He grunted but ran out the door. Jack looked at Merida's face, probably seeing how desperate she was.

"You get the boy, and I'll take care of _him_." He said, and then ran after Jim.

Merida ran to Peter. She wiped the blood off her knife and cut his hands free. When he was sitting up, she threw her arms around him and apologized for everything.

"Hey now, Mer, it's not your fault." Peter told her. She looked him over to make sure that he wasn't too damaged, and to her relief, his only injuries were minor. Peter gave her a small smile. "I bet that'll make a nasty bruise. Don't girls like that kind of thing?"

Merida laughed at him and helped him to his feet. He had just been tied up and beaten trying to save her, yet he still found it within his power to make a joke.

They both looked down at Hook, knowing that he wasn't going to stay knocked out forever.

"Help me get him up to the deck." Peter looked at her.

"What?" She smiled at him.

"Just trust me."

Merida grabbed some rope, and Peter single-handedly carried Hook to the deck. She tied him tightly to one of the support beams, patted him down, and took his weapons. Peter smiled at her. He looked at Captain Hook, took his hat, and put it on his own head.

When Hook came to, Merida and Peter were standing above him.

"Oh, great." Hook mumbled, leaning his head against the pole. Peter looked at him with a smug expression and straightened his hat.

"Good morning, Hookey. This is my friend Merida. Merida, this is Captain Hook, but I think he already knows you." Peter leaned closer to him. "Don't you, captain?" Hook looked down, angry.

Merida stabbed a knife into the deck, and both Peter and Hook looked at her with surprise.

"What's going on?" She said through her teeth. Hook looked genuinely scared of her, but stared at her. She leaned into his face. "Tell me right now, or I will throw you into the ocean." Peter smiled.

"Yeah, Hook, I bet that crocodile is still swimmin' around here." Hook looked like he might soil himself.

"Fine, Fine! I'll tell you, just don't throw me in there again." Merida looked at Peter. Again? Peter smiled at her and shrugged. She'd have to ask him to explain that later.

"Okay," Hook said, looking down "so we've… We've been kinda low on crew lately…" Merida and Peter exchanged glances; Clearly this was not what either of them was expecting. "and me first mate, he… he said he knew a girl who was crazy with a bow…"

"Jim" Merida said. How could she be so stupid? Hook just nodded.

"And, not many of the guys will choose this life. Most of them were… captured…" Peter stared, his eyes wide. Merida looked at Hook with disgust.

"You were going to capture me and make me part of the crew." Hook looked up at her, almost as if it say, "How else would we have gotten you?" Merida squared her jaw.

Just then, Jack jumped onto the deck. He was out of breath, but he jogged up to them.

"He's gone, kids. I couldn't find him."

Merida froze. If Jack couldn't find him, then he's still out there.

"Thanks anyway, Jack." Peter said, carefully looking at Merida.

"Of course he got away. He's crafty, that one. Wouldn't you say, Merida?" Hook smiled at her, and she could see that he was missing teeth. Merida decided that a few more gone wouldn't hurt. She punched him in the jaw, and he made a low sound. Jack's attention was suddenly on Hook.

"You let him live?" Peter shot Jack a look, and he raised his hands. Peter stared at Hook, and then looked at Merida.

"Come on, Merida, we have to go." Peter looked at Jack, his face was hard.

"Do whatever you want with him, just make sure we're a safe distance away." Merida was going to protest, but Peter grabbed her. "Are you afraid of heights?" She looked at him, confused.

"No…"

"Then hold on." He put his arms around her waist so that they were both facing the same direction, then he ran and jumped off the side of the ship.

Merida would have screamed, but they weren't going down. They were going… up. "Oh," she thought, "so that's what he meant about heights."

Merida looked down. They were flying above the trees, but not much higher than their tops. She looked at them, glad that she could appreciate their beauty despite the evening's events. Merida wanted to see what expression Peter was wearing on his face, but they were both facing down, her head below his chin. They flew in silence.

No matter what she thought about, Merida couldn't shake the feeling that they were still in trouble.


	7. Chapter Six: Safe House

**Chapter Six: Safe House**

Merida had had time to think about what had just happened. Jim wasn't who he claimed to be, Hook was trying to recruit her, and Peter was flying away with her safely in his arms…for now.

She looked down and realized that they were flying past her house. Why wasn't she going home? Peter seemed to sense her question.

"It isn't safe for you to be at home. You'll have to stay with me for a while." Merida was going to protest, but what he said made sense.

"Will Jim come looking for us?" Merida knew the answer, but she needed to hear him say it.

"More likely than not." Peter said. He sounded irritated, but not with Merida. She felt so guilty. If she had just listened to Peter's warnings in the first place, they wouldn't be in this mess.

"Why didn't you tell me that he was a pirate?" Merida asked. She genuinely wanted to know; Wouldn't it make sense to tell someone that they were dating an evil pirate guy?

"I didn't know that he was a _pirate_." Peter spat the word. She wondered what had made Peter so bitter about pirates. He seemed to be friends with Captain Jack, but then again, Jack wasn't the bad kind of pirate.

"What did you think he was?" Peter tightened his grip on her.

"I just thought he was a bad guy. He wasn't always like this…" This peaked Merida's interest.

"What do you mean?" Peter rose a bit above the tops of the trees.

"Jim Hawkins used to be a nice guy. We were friends once." He was flying slower now, lost in thought.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. One day, he just disappeared. He showed up again around the time that you did, and he was… different." Merida thought about this. It made sense: Good people could go bad, but there was usually some kind of reason for it.

"What do you think happened?"

"I don't know." Peter said. He sounded genuinely confused. How long had he been friends with Jim? If they were as close as Merida guessed that they had once been, then wouldn't Peter have noticed some kind of dark side?

They flew in silence for a few minutes, Merida thinking about what she had just heard, and Peter… Well, probably thinking about the same thing.

"There." Peter said. Merida looked up, but she couldn't see anything.

"What?" She asked.

"Do you see it?" Merida looked around. What was she looking for? Peter laughed quietly.

"You're tired, aren't you?" He asked.

"Maybe a little." She mumbled. Merida figured that she had a right to be tired; It had been a long day.

The two landed on something in the trees. Merida tried to look around, but she was so tired that she nearly fell over.

"Come on, let's get you up to bed." Peter said, walking her through a door.

Merida was a little fuzzy on what was going on. They must be at his house. Peter walked her up a staircase, and then through a door. He sat her down on a bed.

"Goodnight, Merida."

"Goodnight, Peter."

* * *

Merida woke up feeling well rested. She sat up, and then froze. Where was she?

"Oh." She said out loud, getting up. Peter had brought her back to his house so that she would be safe.

She looked around the room. She didn't know what she had been expecting, but it probably wasn't this. The floor was made of cherry wood, and very clean. The walls were a cream color and one of them was made entirely of glass.

She looked out the window and laughed once. The house was literally in a tree. She looked over the room again. There was a bed, a nightstand, and a hook with her bow on it. There were also three doors against the walls.

The danger that Merida was in suddenly hit her. She tried to push it back and went into the door that she thought was the closet. There was no use dwelling on it when nothing was happening immediately.

She was a bit surprised that all of her clothes were already there, but she grabbed some clean ones and looked in the mirror.

She was still wearing her costume, which was ripped to shreds, her feet were black because she had been running around barefoot, and her hair looked like more of a monster than usual.

Merida walked back into the bedroom and walked through another door. Thankfully, it led to a bathroom.

It took her about an hour to get the tangles out of her hair. Once she was as clean as possible and freshly changed, she walked back into the bedroom and sat on the bed. After a few minutes, there was a knock on her door.

"Merida? You awake?"

"Yes. You can come in, Peter." Peter walked in and smiled at her.

"Looks like you've already found the closet and the bathroom." Merida looked up at him.

"Yeah." Peter looked her over.

"Well, you're probably hungry. Let's go have some breakfast and then you can go on an official tour." Peter smiled at her, and she smiled back. At least she could count on Peter to make her smile when they both knew that she was in danger.

Peter walked with her down the staircase again. Now that Merida was fully awake, she could see that the staircase twisted up the entire house, and like her room, the other rooms had similar flooring and coloring.

They had to walk down two floors to get to the kitchen, which was on the first floor. Merida briefly wondered how many floors this house had.

"So, what do you want to eat?" Peter asked, sitting on top of a counter.

"I don't know, what have you got?" Merida had to suppress a smile. She doubted Peter had any real food.

"Uhh…" Peter said, throwing his refrigerator doors open. "Milk, berries, chocolate cake…" Peter smiled at her. "I can also make ramen."

"I think I'll just have milk and berries." Merida said, sitting down. Peter poured Merida a glass of milk and got her a bowl of different kinds of berries.

"What about you?" Peter hadn't gotten himself anything to eat.

"Oh, I ate chocolate cake earlier." Peter said, smiling. Merida smiled a little. She was glad that Tiana had taught her how to cook, because Peter needed some serious help. How was he even alive?

Merida sighed. She had to know if she missed any updates on Jim.

"Has anyone found him yet?" Peter's smile faltered.

"No." He said, looking at her. "But if anyone hears anything, they'll come tell us." Merida sipped her milk.

"How do we know that he won't come here?" Peter laughed.

"Because he can't!" Merida looked up at him, and Peter straightened up, putting his fists on his hips. "Only people who can fly can get up here." Merida pulled her eyebrows together.

"What?" Peter laughed again.

"Well, you were pretty tired last night, so I don't expect you to remember." Merida put the last of her berries into her mouth.

"Remember what?" She asked.

"The outside of the house. We can go see it when you're done eating." Merida drank the last of her milk.

"I'm done." She got up and Peter walked her out the front door.

They were standing on a porch which seemed to circle around the entire house. Merida put her hands on the rails of it and looked down. The porch was hundreds of feet off of the ground, and there were no stairs leading to it.

Merida leaned back against the rail and looked up the side of the house. It was the same color as the tree trunk that it was built on and it stretched up three stories. There was an outdoor staircase twisting around the house which seemed to mirror the one inside. The walls were dotted with big windows, and, as far as Merida could tell, the roof was flat.

"See, no one can get up here unless they can fly, and I'm pretty sure that Jim can't fly."

Merida relaxed a bit. Peter did have a point, you would have to be able to fly to get up here, or have someone fly you up.

"Alright." Merida said, and Peter smiled at her.

"Now you can see the rest of the house." Peter said, and he took her back inside.

Merida wasn't exactly in the mood for a tour, but Peter seemed to be pretty eager about it, so she tried to keep up with him.

The first floor was the kitchen and dining area. It had the same flooring and wall coloring as all of the other rooms she had seen, and the furniture was a few shades lighter than the floor. There was a hat rack by the door, holding various hats, including Hook's.

The two walked up to the next floor, which looked like a loft.

"This is where I keep all of my hunting stuff and random things that I find." Peter said.

Merida walked around, looking at the shelves. Some of them had things like bows and knives, but others had objects on them. Something shiny caught her eye, and she walked over to it. It looked like a thimble, but it must have been really old.

"This is where all of the arrows are, so if you ever need them, now you know where to find them." Peter said, steering her towards the opposite wall, which was covered with labeled drawers. Merida looked at all of the labels. Sleep, explode, net, normal…

"Who did you say makes all of your arrows?" There had to be at least forty different kinds of arrows on this wall alone.

"Hawk Eye." Peter said. "You haven't met him before. He's a jumper."

"A what?"

"A jumper." Peter said. "Hawk Eye is part of a team called the Avengers. Everyone on that team is able to jump from their universe to our universe." Merida's eyes widened.

"How?" Peter smiled at her.

"Well, I don't really know how it works. They built a tower in their universe for them to live in, and there's a portal in it that leads to ours. The same thing happened to Alice Liddell, except the portal that she came through was a rabbit hole."

"How on earth did she fit through a rabbit hole?"

"The White Rabbit is kind of big…" Peter said, thinking. He looked a little bit put off. Was he afraid of the White Rabbit?

"How come no one told me about this?" Merida wondered out loud.

"We aren't supposed to talk about it, it's dangerous for people to cross into a universe that they were never a part of." Merida looked at Peter.

"Then how come you know about it?" Peter looked down.

"A long time ago, I used to have one, but Hook broke it somehow. Now no one can get back inside." Merida looked down. She knew how it felt to be away from home. Peter looked up and smiled at her.

"Come on, we still have two more places to go."

They walked up the staircase into a circular room that Merida recognized: This was where her bedroom was.

"My bedroom is the one closest to the stairs, and yours is next to it, so if you ever need anything you know where to find me." Peter said. "You've already figured out your way around here, so we're going to move on."

Peter took her up the staircase until they reached a glass door.

"This is the best part." Peter said, and he opened the door.

They walked out the door onto the roof. Merida looked around and smiled. The roof was level with the tree tops. Scattered around the roof were maps, telescopes, mats for lying down, and books. She looked at Peter .He was holding his hands behind his back, scuffing his shoe on the ground.

"I like to look at the stars." He said, and looked up to see her reaction. Merida smiled at him and looked around. When she had arrived to her house, it seemed to be a reflection of herself. That meant that either Peter did some serious cheating, or this was really a reflection of himself.

"Your house is amazing." Merida said, smiling.

"I'm glad you like it." Peter said. "And you can come up here whenever you want."

"Thank you, Peter, for everything." Merida said. She knew how dangerous it was for him to keep her in his house, even if no one could get up here.

"It's no problem, Merida, it would be worse if something happened to you." Peter replied very matter-of-factly. "We just have to lay low for a while." He said, and Merida nodded.


	8. Chapter Seven: Outside

_Hello my beautiful readers! Today is my birthday, and I'm in a happy mood, so I wanted to take the time to thank every single one of you for reading the story. I believe I told some of you that it was only going to be nine chapters long, but I'm here today to tell you that it's looking like I'll need more than that. Also, I've been told by the site managers that I cannot have illustrations in my stories, but when the illustrations get finished, I'll let you guys know how you can see them. Enjoy chapter seven!_

**Chapter Seven: Outside**

Merida looked around herself and sighed. A week ago, Peter had saved her from Hook and Jim, and had taken her to stay with him so that she would be safe. She was thankful for everything that he had done. However, Peter said that to be safe she had to stay indoors, and at this point, she was going stir-crazy.

"I have to get out." She thought to herself, looking out one of the many windows in the room.

Since she arrived, Peter had been a good enough host. He fed her, kept everything clean, let Tiana visit a few times, and did whatever she asked. Except for letting her outside, of course.

Peter walked through the front door carrying bags of food. He set them down on the counter and smiled at her. Merida sighed.

"Peter, if I don't get out, I'm going to go crazy." Peter's smile didn't falter.

"Come on, Mer, we have plenty of fun here! Besides, you _can _go outside."

"Going on the roof was not what I meant." Peter sighed.

"Merida, it's not safe. You could get hurt."

"I can take my bow with me; You know that I'm a great shot." She said, straightening up.

"But what if there are too many of them?" Merida bit her lip. She knew that Peter was right, and he was just trying to keep her safe, but she couldn't help it. "Cheer up, I brought you back something."

Merida perked up; This was new. Peter had gone shopping a few times, but he had never brought back anything specifically for her.

"Close your eyes."

"Peter-"

"Nope! You have to close your eyes or else you can't have it." Merida tried to suppress her smile, but failed, and closed her eyes. "Now stick your hands out." Merida obeyed and felt warm hands on hers. When they went away, she felt something cold. "All right, you can open your eyes now."

Merida opened her eyes and in her hands was a necklace. The chain was a dark brass color and attached to it was a little bow and arrow charm. Peter smiled even wider.

"Do you like it? I found it and I thought that you would like it." Merida smiled at him.

"Yes, Peter, I like it. Thank you." Peter watched her as she put the necklace on.

"You know, I was thinking…" Merida looked up at him

"Yeah?" Peter smiled at her.

"There is this _one _place where we could go, but only if you really want to go outside." Merida jumped up.

"Can we go right now?" Peter laughed at her.

"Yeah, we can go, just let me get some stuff first." Peter walked up the staircase and Merida smiled. Finally, she was going to go outside.

While she was waiting, Merida began to put away the food the Peter had gotten. Milk, eggs, chocolate chip cookies, cake batter… She laughed. He really did have a sweet tooth.

A few minutes after she had finished, Peter came down with a brown back pack slung over his shoulder. She gave him a look.

"Just in case." Peter said to her, and they walked onto the porch.

It only took a few minutes of flying, but they touched down at the beginning of a trail. Merida looked at Peter. What were they doing here? Peter smiled at her.

"There's a lot of trees here, so we should be safe." Merida was curious; She'd never been this way.

"What are we doing?"

"Just following the trail," Peter said causally. "and if we go the right way, there's something really cool at the end." Merida sighed, and then smiled. A little bit of exercise would be good for her.

As they walked down the trail, Peter pointed out flowers and plants to Merida. Arroyo Lupine, Baby Blue Eyes, Foxglove, Evergreen Huckleberry bushes, Bog Laurel Bloom… He seemed to know a lot about the forest, but he did spend a lot of his time in it.

After explaining what a Salmonberry tasted like, Peter laughed.

"What?" Merida asked.

"It's just," Peter laughed again "remember when I asked you if you liked flowers?" Merida smiled, that was when they were just becoming friends.

"Yeah?" Peter helped her over a log.

"It's just that… That I was asking you because I was going to bring you out here."

Merida's heart skipped a beat. What was that all about? She ignored the flutter and looked at the plants surrounding her. Thanks to Peter, she knew most of their names now.

"It is beautiful out here." She said, smiling. Peter smiled back at her.

"Wait until you see what's at the end."

After about a half an hour of walking, the trail forked.

"Which way?" Merida asked, looking at Peter expectantly. Peter scratched his head, looked down both paths, and smiled.

"Neither." He said. Merida looked at him.

"Neither?" Peter laughed at her.

"This way" he said, and walked off trail.

Merida expected to be climbing over rocks and fallen trees, but looking at the ground, she saw that there was a faint trail. If Peter didn't know where to look, they probably wouldn't have found it.

After just a few minutes of walking, the forest gave way to a meadow. Merida gasped, and Peter smiled. The grass was the greenest she had ever seen, and there were wild flowers speckled throughout it. At the other side was a small waterfall pouring into a miniature lake.

"This is amazing." Merida said, taking it all in. Peter pulled out a small bag that he had been putting wild berries into and took a few more. When he was done, he turned to Merida.

"Yes, this is amazing, but it's not where we are going." Merida looked at him, curious. What could possibly be better than this?

"Come with me." Peter said, and he grabbed her hand. They walked up to the waterfall and stopped.

"Are you okay with getting wet?" Merida was confused.

"Are we going swimming?" Peter laughed at her.

"We'll do that later, but that's not what I meant. Just trust me."

Peter walked into the lake, still towing Merida with one hand, and proceeded to walk into the waterfall.

When they emerged on the other side, they were both soaking wet and laughing. Merida looked around herself: She was in some kind of cavern, with crystals hanging from the ceiling, there was a small circle of the cave lit up from some kind of natural light source.

"Wow." Was all she could say.

For the next couple of hours, the two sat in the cave, ate their berries, and looked around at the different kinds of crystals. There were all different colors, and all of them lit up where the sunlight hit them. Peter took pieces of each one to take back home, giving Merida a blue one.

After they had spent a good amount of time looking around the cave, Peter asked Merida if she wanted to go swimming.

"I don't even have anything to swim in." Merida said, looking at the ground. Peter laughed.

"I've got you covered." He reached into his backpack and pulled out a swimsuit for her. She opened her mouth to ask where he got it, but he explained.

"Tiana brought it over the last time she came," He told her "just in case you needed it."

"Well that was nice of her." Peter stood there for a minute and Merida smiled at him. It took him a full minute to get the hint.

"Oh!" He said, blushing. "I'll- I'll uh… I'll be outside…" And with that, he went into the meadow.

Merida laughed to herself. "Oh, Peter." She thought as she got dressed. He was so sweet, and she was lucky to have him. She could hear what Tiana would say to that, the accusations she would make, but it was true. Peter had saved her life, and not only that but he had made sure that she stayed alive and as comfortable as possible.

After she had changed, she looked down at what she was wearing. It was a simple one-piece, navy blue with white polka dots.

Behind her, she thought that she heard a noise. She turned around, but it was too dark to really see anything. She quickly walked out to the meadow.

When she was out she could see that Peter was already splashing around. He looked at her and floated on his back with his arms behind his head.

"Sorry I didn't wait; The water just looked too good." Merida laughed

"Well, it's okay, I-" but she looked at Peter, and realized that this was the first time she'd seen him with his shirt off. Even more surprising was what was _underneath _his shirt. She quickly looked away and jumped into the water.

"Calm down," She told herself. "anyone would look like that, with all of that running around outside…" When she came up to the surface, Peter wasn't there.

"Peter?" She called out, a bit alarmed. Suddenly, something grabbed her foot. She screamed and Peter shot up to the surface. She splashed him, and he splashed her back.

"This means WAR!" Peter yelled out, jumping under the surface.

Merida went under, too, and found that she could see perfectly through the clear water. She saw Peter and she grabbed his foot, trying to tickle it. He started laughing, but even he couldn't breathe under water, so he shot up to the surface with Merida still clinging to him.

He grabbed her arm and tickled her stomach. She slammed into him, pushing both of them under water, tangled up together and wrestling. When they came back up, Peter had Merida's arms pinned behind her back and was holding her to his chest. He smiled down at her.

"I win." He said, but didn't let her go. Merida blushed. This is where he was supposed to let go.

Shouldn't this feel wrong? She asked herself, but she couldn't seem to find anything wrong with how close they were. She looked up at him. His wet hair was clinging to his face, and was almost covering his eyes. His long eyelashes were dripping wet, and he was smiling. He started to lean down toward her.

She hadn't kissed anyone before, but she was pretty sure that that was what was going to happen. Was she okay with that? She couldn't remember. She closed her eyes and began to stretch up.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the forest. Peter whipped his head towards it, letting go of her. He said something under his breath, but she couldn't tell what it was.

"Peter?" She whispered. He motioned for her to be silent and pointed to the cave. She nodded and they quickly went inside. Peter riffled through his bag.

"I'm sorry, Mer, I thought we were safe here." He said.

"Wait, Peter," Merida said, grabbing his arm "how do we know that it's them?" Peter bit his lip.

"Well, we don't, but if it is them, we need to be ready. Flying out would make us an easy target, and running would make too much noise." _Noise_. Merida remembered that she had heard a noise in the back of the cave when she was dressing. She grabbed Peter and pulled his ear to her lips.

"Peter, I don't think we're alone." He looked up at her. She nodded towards where she had heard the noise. He grabbed something black out of his bag and handed her her bow. She readied it.

Suddenly, there was light against the other side of the cave. Merida stared at the thing in Peter's hand, baffled.

"Flashlight." He said, but he wasn't looking at her. Merida followed his gaze to someone standing on the other side of the cave, pressed against the rock wall.

"Facilier." Peter said through his teeth.

"Peter." The man said, hugging the rock. Merida had no idea who this was, but judging from the condition of his clothing, she had good reason not to.

It was quiet for a second, and then Peter jumped on Facilier, pinning him to the floor. Merida decided to follow Peter's lead, drawing her bow and aiming at Facilier.

"What are you doing here?" Peter asked him. Facilier sighed, trying to look bored, but it was obvious that he was scared. Why did Peter know so many criminals?

"Just doing business." He replied evenly. Peter looked at Merida and then back at Facilier.

"For who?" Facilier didn't say anything, so Peter pressed him into the ground. "For. Who." He said again.

"You know who, no one else wants her." Facilier said.

"Who?" Merida asked, still pointing the bow. She wanted him to say it out loud.

"Jim." Facilier said, and his hand twitched. Merida narrowed his eyes, but he turned his head to her. "And don't worry, Sweetheart, I couldn't see you changing." Peter pushed him flat on the ground, pressing his face inches away from Facilier's.

"If you didn't see her, then how did you know what she was doing?" They stared at each other for a second, and Merida shivered.

"Because of the pile of clothes she left behind her." Facilier said through his teeth. Peter stared at him, and then pulled back slightly.

"How many are out there?" Peter asked.

"Just me." Facilier said. He had kept his voice calm the entire time, but Merida got the distinct feeling that this was worse than him screaming.

Peter looked at him for a long second, and then looked at Merida.

"Could you hand me my bag, please?" He asked, sticking out his hand. Merida handed it to him, and then Peter turned his attention back to Facilier.

"You tell Jim that he can't have Merida. Not now, not ever." Peter said, pulling out rope. He began to tie up Facilier.

"Not to tight on the hands, it leaves a nasty mark." Facilier said, smiling. Peter tightened the rope and then stood up.

"Let's go." He said, grabbing Merida's arm and walking her out.

"Do you think it's safe to fly?" Merida asked. Peter grabbed her.

"Yeah, it should be. Facilier is evil, but he's the kind of evil that gets restless when he lies." Peter jumped into the air, holding Merida securely.

She thought about Facilier's face when he said Jim's name; It had looked off.

"I think he was lying about Jim." Merida said. Peter didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"Why do you think that?" He didn't sound mad, he only confused as to how she had formed that opinion.

"Because when Facilier said his name, something was wrong." Peter held her closer.

"No, Mer, he's just afraid of him. That's all." Merida sighed.

"Yeah, that makes sense."

When they reached Peter's house, it was twilight.

"Thank you for taking me out today." Merida said, and she was thankful. She really did have fun, except for the unwelcome interruption. Peter smiled at her.

"I'm glad you managed to have some fun. I don't think you'll be going back out anytime soon, though." They walked inside, and Merida wondered how long they could hide until they were found.


	9. Chapter Eight: Doubts

**Chapter Eight: Doubts**

"You guys went on a date!?" Tiana was sitting on Merida's bed. The girls were having one of their "girl days" and Merida was glad for the company.

"No, it wasn't a _date_." Merida said, sitting on the other side of her. Tiana seemed to be ignoring the fact that it was cut short by someone attacking them.

"Merida." Tiana gave her a look.

"It really wasn't!" Merida lightly hit her with a pillow.

"Then why do you always wear that necklace that he gave to you?" Merida blushed and tried to form a reason.

"Because- Because it was a gift." She said. Her answer fooled neither of them, and they both started laughing.

"Well, if you need a wedding caterer, you know who to call."

"Tiana!"

* * *

Merida had already settled into a morning routine. Wake up, get dressed, try to look presentable, walk downstairs, and make breakfast (God knows how Peter was able to live by himself; The only thing he could make was ramen.).

As she was getting out ingredients for pancakes, she noticed something new on the table. It was a vase, filled up with water and flowers that she recognized from her time outside with Peter. Next to the vase was a note:

Had to go help Ariel find Sebastian, will be back soon.

-Peter.

P.S. Please make me some pancakes, I will love you forever.

Merida laughed. Living with Peter was so easy; She couldn't imagine living by herself again. She blushed. "Stop thinking like that!" She told herself, but she couldn't put the idea to rest.

After she had made a few pancakes, she had an idea. She went to the cabinet and pulled out a bag of chocolate chips. She poured in the batter like she usually did, but threw a handful of the chocolate pieces on top of it. After that pancake was done, she tasted it.

"Yum." She said, chewing it slowly. She'd have to tell Tiana about this amazing creation.

Merida made the rest of the pancakes with chocolate chips and then set the table. She looked at the vase of flowers and smiled. It was sweet of him to do that, and he managed to make them look like an actual bouquet. She laughed and cleaned up her mess from making the pancakes.

Merida was in the middle of making orange juice when Peter walked in. He smiled, and then sniffed the air.

"Why does it smell like chocolate?" she laughed and told him about her creation. He smiled and tried it. "Merida," He said. "this is the most amazing thing I have ever had in my life."

She laughed, because it probably did seem like that to him, with all of the ramen that he was eating before she came along. She poured him a glass of orange juice and they ate their breakfast with a happy chatter.

"You know, I was thinkin'…" Peter said between bites.

"Yeah?"

"Well, after all of this is over, I was thinkin' that you and me should go visit Ariel. It'll be tons of fun because we can have combats where you'll shoot your bow and arrow and I'll shoot my slingshot and Ariel can judge them!" They both started laughing; Merida laughed so hard that she couldn't breathe.

"Sure, Peter." She said, still laughing. "We can do that sometime."

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Merida looked at Peter.

"I thought only you could get up here." She said to him.

"Actually, anyone who flies can get up here." He said, unphased, and opened the door.

Standing there was an out of breath Aladdin and Carpet; Aladdin's face was whiter than Merida had ever seen it. Peter grabbed his arm and took him in.

"What's wrong?" He asked. All traces of his smile were gone.

"We… Jack… Captain Jack found him…" Aladdin gasped. Carpet fell to the floor and Peter grabbed Aladdin's shoulders.

"Where?" Aladdin looked up.

"They're… at Jack's place… trying to figure out what to do with him." Merida helped Aladdin drink some water. She looked up at Peter.

"We have to go." She said. Peter looked at her for a long second.

"Okay, wait for me." He ran up the stairs. Merida managed to get Aladdin to the couch and laid him down. Peter came back down with his backpack.

"Will you guys be all right alone?" Aladdin propped himself up.

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Peter grabbed Merida and jumped off the porch. She didn't know where Captain Jack lived, but Peter seemed to.

After a few minutes, they landed on the beach in front of a large beach house. Merida thought it suited him, but then again, didn't everyone's houses suit them? Peter let her go, dug in his backpack, and pulled out his knife.

"Just in case." He said, and they walked inside.

When they entered the house, they saw that there was no need for the weapons. Jim was bound tightly to a chair, and he was looking at the floor. Clustered around him were Jack, Tiana, Mulan, Jasmine, and Dr. Joshua Sweet.

They all looked up when Merida and Peter entered, except for Jim, who continued to stare at the ground.

"Where'd you find him?" Merida asked, staring him down.

"I found him while I was walking through the forest and pinned him down. Jack heard the commotion and came to help." Said Mulan.

Merida had to suppress a smile. She had heard stories that Mulan was a great warrior.

"We're just deciding what to do with him." Jack said, twisting a knife in his hand. Merida looked at the knife, then to Jim. She froze.

"No." She said, and they all looked at her. "You can't kill him; That would be wrong." She said, staring him down. Funny, he was going to have her enslaved as a pirate, but she couldn't see him die. Peter leaned into Merida's ear.

"Merida, people can't die here." She looked up at him, shocked.

"We could put him in the zoo." Jack said, smiling. Tiana looked at him and he promptly closed his mouth.

"After we get him cleaned up, we can put him in the dungeon." Sweet said, looking at Jim.

Dungeon? Merida looked up at Peter, distracted from her new discovery. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jim look up, a flicker of curiosity in his eye. A flag went off in her head. That wasn't an appropriate emotion of someone who was guilty of kidnapping.

"We don't tell people that there's a dungeon because we don't want to scare them." Peter said, looking at her. "But yes, there is a dungeon. It's where we keep people who try to bring others harm." Jim looked up at Merida.

"Merida, Merida please, you have to believe me." He pleaded with her. Jack kicked his chair.

"Shut up." He said, but Jim kept going, his face desperate.

"Merida, please. It wasn't me. I don't know what happened, but I was tied up and there were people that I didn't know. Please."

Merida looked at him. His face looked so genuine, and she wanted to believe him, but how in the world could he be innocent?

"I-" Merida whispered. "I need a minute." She walked out the door, closed it, and then sprinted along the beach.

"Merida!" Peter called, running up to her. "Merida."

She turned to him, tears rushing down her face. He pulled her into him.

"What if it wasn't him?" Merida said, looking up at Peter.

"Merida, it had to be him. We all saw him." Merida was shaking. Peter walked her to the grass and sat her down. He rubbed her back.

"It's just-" Merida said, trying to wipe her tears away. "He seems genuinely innocent."

"It's okay, Mer," Peter said, hugging her. "it's all over now." He misunderstood what she had said, but Merida was too exhausted to correct him. He pulled her back and looked into her eyes. "I will never let anything hurt you." He said, and he kissed her forehead. "Now, let's go home." He picked her up and began to fly.


	10. Chapter Nine: Seeing Double

**Chapter Nine: Seeing Double**

"You ready, Merida?" Peter asked, picking up her bag.

After she and Peter had left Jack's house, Doctor Sweet had taken Jim back to the hospital. This morning, he was brought to the dungeon, which meant that Merida could go back home. She sighed.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

She didn't know if she was really ready, but she had to tell him that she was. She was going to miss so many things about this house. The windows, the trees, the roof… And besides that, she still felt like something wasn't right. Peter had been promising her all morning that it was safe for her to leave now, but she still wasn't sure.

"Well, off we go." Peter said. He swung her bag on his shoulder, grabbed her, and jumped off of the porch.

The two were silent for a few minutes, but Merida couldn't shake the feeling that something was still wrong.

"Peter, we need to land right now." He did as she said, dropping down in the middle of the trees.

"What's wrong?" He asked, looking her over.

"It's just," She took a deep breath. "I still feel like something is wrong. I don't think it's safe." Peter looked at her for a long second and then nodded.

"Look," He said "We'll just hang out at your house for a little while, okay?" Merida looked up at him.

"Peter, if something's still wrong, that's probably where I shouldn't go." Peter smiled slightly.

"Exactly. If something is wrong, then we'll find it and fix it. If something isn't wrong, then, well, we didn't lose anything, right?" Merida smiled up at him. He always listened to her, even if she seemed crazy to him.

The two walked carefully over to her house. Peter handed Merida her bow.

The outside of her house looked normal enough, but there was a silence over the area that was unsettling. Merida motioned for Peter to follow her and she walked up to the front door.

Slowly, she turned the handle, opening the door silently. She couldn't see anyone, but then again, there were only a few places to hide, and they weren't here.

Merida signaled for Peter to go down the hallway. He did and she went into the kitchen. She looked around, but it was obvious that no one was there. Maybe she was being paranoid.

"Merida!"

She sprinted down to the hallway and turned into her bedroom, and what she saw stunned her: Peter had Jim pinned to the floor.

* * *

"So he's still in the dungeon?" Merida had been on the phone with Doctor Sweet for a few minutes now.

"Yes, Merida, I'm looking right at him. Is something wrong?" Merida looked at Jim, who was tied to a chair.

"Everything is fine, but you might want to send some people over here."

"Why?" There was some shuffling on the other line.

"Just trust me on this. I have to go." Merida hung up the phone and walked over to the chair. Peter was leaning against a wall, scratching his head. She walked up to Jim and stood over his chair.

"I think we have a problem here." She said, staring at Jim. He looked down at the rope holding him to the chair, and then looked up at her.

"I don't see a problem here." She moved closer to him.

"Sweet says that Jim is locked in the dungeon, and here you are, tied up in my living room. Care to explain?" Jim made an over-exaggerated thinking face.

"Nope. Not really." Peter stood up.

"You're not Jim." He said. He had a hard expression on, but Merida could see all of the emotions in his eyes.

"Prove it." Jim said, smiling. Peter squared his jaw.

There was a knock at the door, and Merida answered it. A group of people came into her living room consisting of Jack, Mulan, Tiana, Jasmine, and Aladdin. When they saw Jim tied to a chair, they stopped in their tracks.

"Peter found him in my bedroom and pinned him down. Would anyone like to explain what's going on here?" Jack walked up to him, rubbing his own chin, and stood in front of him.

"Maybe you'd like to explain, mate." He said to Jim, who smiled at him.

"Nope." Jim said. Mulan stepped forward.

"If this is Jim, then-" Merida shook her head.

"This isn't Jim. I don't know what's going on, and whoever this is doesn't want to talk. I think we should talk to the Jim in the dungeon. Maybe he knows something." Peter nodded.

"Do you think that the five of you could babysit for a while?" Peter said, staring at Jim.

"I think we'll be just fine." Tiana said, pulling up a chair.

Merida and Peter walked out the door. Once they were a good distance away, Merida voiced the question that was gnawing at her mind.

"Do you know what's going on?" Peter kicked a rock.

"Well, theres a few people who could pull that kind of thing off." Peter said, concentrating. "The first is Facilier, but I don't think it's him."

"Why not?" Merida asked. From what she had observed, Facilier would probably do something like this.

"Well, the spirits are mad at him. They have been for a long time. They almost killed him in Tiana's old universe." Merida looked up at Peter.

"Spirits? And he's from Tiana's old universe?" Peter sighed.

"They're the ghosts of his family. Facilier used to use the spirits to control his magic, but he couldn't keep his side of a bargain with them, and they attacked him. And yes, he was a part of Tiana's universe. He almost killed her and her husband." Merida pondered this for a while.

"Well, who else could it be?"

"There's only one other person that I know, and I hope it's not him." Peter said. Before Merida could ask who that was, he spoke again. "Is it okay if we fly now? Snow White's castle is pretty far away."

"The dungeon is in _Snow White's castle_?" Merida looked at Peter like he was crazy. Snow White was one of the sweetest people she had ever met. Maybe a little too sweet at times, but still sweet.

"It wasn't Snow White's idea," Peter said, picking up Merida. "that's just how her castle was built." Peter jumped off the ground and flew towards the forest.

It took a whole half an hour of flying to get to Snow White's castle. It was several stories high, on top of a mountain, and surrounded by a moat. The exterior was so cheerful that it was hard to imagine a dungeon with criminals below it.

When Peter and Merida dropped to the ground, he took off his backpack.

"Weapons?" He asked, looking at Merida.

"Not this time." She said, and they walked towards the castle.

Merida looked around. There were so many animals over here. Snow White must have a thing for nature.

Once they got to the door, Peter knocked once, and Doctor Sweet answered.

"Is it true? Are there really two of him?" He whispered, looking around.

"Not exactly," Peter said "There's Jim in the dungeon, and then there's someone who looks a lot like him tied up in Merida's living room." Doctor Sweet's eyes widened.

"You don't think…?" Peter nodded, and Sweet sighed. Merida looked between the two of them. What was it that she didn't know?

"Well, I'll take you to him." The Doctor said, closing the door behind them.

Sweet led Peter and Merida down a series of hallways and into a library.

"Where's Snow White?" Merida asked, looking at Sweet.

"She doesn't like being home when we're taking people to and from the dungeon." Merida nodded. That sounded like Snow White.

He walked up to a book, pulled it, and a door opened. Merida had to suppress a laugh; It was so cliché.

The door took them down a stony hallway, down a flight of stairs, and into a hallway with various doors.

"Third door." Doctor Sweet said, motioning to a door. Peter began to walk to it, but Merida stopped him.

"Peter, do you mind if I do this alone?" Peter looked her over, looking like he did mind quite a lot, but nodded and stepped back. Merida walked into Jim's cell.

Once she was inside, she closed the door behind her. Jim was sitting on his bed, and he looked up.

"What's going on?" He asked, hugging the wall.

"I was actually hoping that you could tell me." Merida said. Jim looked up, curious. "There's a man tied up in my living room who looks exactly like you." She said, and Jim shot up.

"You found him? Where is he?"

"Hold on." Merida said, leaning against one of the walls. "He's still at my house. I just need you to tell me what happened." Jim stood up.

"How do I know that you'll believe me?" Merida crossed her arms.

"You don't. You need to trust me." Jim put his hands on his head and sighed.

"All right." He said, leaning against the wall opposite of Merida. "I have no idea how much time has passed since they got me." She looked up at him.

"That day, I had been hanging out with Peter. We were shooting bows in the forest. When it got dark, I decided to go home, so I said I'd see him later and I started to walk." He looked down, biting his lip.

"And then what happened?" Merida asked.

"I heard something behind me, but I wasn't sure what it was. I decided to go see if it was Peter following me. I called out his name a few times, but no one responded. Then all of the sudden, there were big arms around me. I didn't even have time to get out my bow…"

Jim cleared his throat and looked up at her. "They took me to some cave in the forest and tied me up. I have no idea how long I was in there, but by the time I managed to escape, Mulan tackled me and started saying that I had done all of these things."

He looked Merida in the eye. "You don't know how sorry I am for what you had to go through, but I swear, I had nothing to do with it. I don't even know who you are."

Merida looked Jim over. He didn't look vicious like the person who was tied up in her house, he looked like he was lost and tired.

"I believe you, Jim." She said. He looked up at her.

"Thank you." He said, and his voice caught.

Merida walked out of Jim's cell. Peter was sitting on the ground against a wall, and he looked up when she closed to door.

"So?" Peter said, getting up.

"That's the real Jim." She said. Peter looked up at her.

"What happened?"

"He doesn't really know. The last thing he remembered was shooting arrows with you, and then someone tied him up in a cave." Peter looked at the wall for a while, and then a smile crept on to his face.

"I knew he was a good guy." He said, and he looked up at Merida.

"I'm going to go talk to Jim for a while, okay? You talk to Sweet and get everything sorted out." She nodded, and Peter walked into Jim's cell.

Merida began to walk up the staircase, trying to process what was going on. The person who she had met as Jim, the person who she had gone on dates with, the person who had captured her wasn't who he was claiming to be.

"Merida?" Doctor Sweet turned the corner and walked to Merida. He looked nervous.

"Doctor Sweet? What's going on?" He grabbed her arm, tugged her into the closest room, and closed the door. It looked like it was a study.

"Merida, you need to listen very carefully." The doctor looked her in the eyes and she nodded. "That man who is tied up in your house is extremely dangerous."

"You know who he is?" Merida looked up at him. Sweet looked even more nervous than before.

"Yes, I know who he is. Peter doesn't want you to know because of how dangerous he is. You need to see that he's just trying to protect you, but I think you have a right to know."

Merida swallowed. If Peter had thought that it was too dangerous for her to know, did she really want to know? She already knew the answer to that.

"Yes, tell me." There was a loud noise, and the two were quiet. There were footsteps. Merida recognized them, they were Peter's. Sweet pulled his mouth to Merida's ear.

"Jafar."


	11. Chapter Ten: The Real Jim

**Chapter Ten: The Real Jim**

"Merida?" Peter asked, opening the door to the study.

Merida was leaning against a wall, and Doctor Sweet was on the phone with the group of people at her house. Merida nodded, and Peter stepped in with Jim cautiously following.

"Hey Peter, hey Jim." Merida said casually. She wasn't going to let Peter find out what Sweet had just told her.

"Okay. All right." The doctor said into the phone, and then hung up.

"What's the news?" Peter asked.

Jim sat against the wall next to Merida. Merida felt so sorry for what happened to him; He looked so innocent. Sweet clapped his hands, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Well, we've all come to an agreement that this" Sweet motioned to Jim "is the real Jim Hawkins."

Peter's posture relaxed, and Jim let out a breath that Merida didn't know he was holding.

"And the other guy?" Jim asked, looking up at Sweet.

Sweet gave Peter a sideways glance.

"We're just figuring out what to do with him."

Jim nodded and slouched back into the wall. As soon as he did so, Peter stood up and looked at the doctor.

"You and I should head over there and see what's going on." Peter shifted his eyes to Merida. "Can you take Jim home? He's been away for a while."

If Sweet hadn't told her about Peter wanting to keep her in the dark, Merida would have protested, but she couldn't let him know that she knew.

She stood up and brushed off her pants.

"Yeah. Come on, Jim." She said, helping him up.

Merida turned to walk out, but Peter pulled her into a hug.

"Be careful." He said.

Merida had no idea what to say, so she blushed quietly until he let her go. Peter straightened her necklace, and then looked at Jim.

"You two should leave before Hook realizes that we've found the real Jim."

Jim nodded, and he and Merida walked out the door.

After they were out of the castle, Merida cleared her throat.

"So… Where do you live?" Jim laughed.

"Pretty far from here, actually. Too bad we can't all fly like Peter." They laughed, and fell into silence. After a few minutes, Jim spoke up.

"Merida…" Jim said, kicking a rock.

"Yeah?"

"Peter told me about how you thought that… When that guy was me… We were…" Jim ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry about that."

Merida felt a sting in her chest, but tried to keep herself composed.

"It's okay, Jim. I'm not mad at you."

He smiled at her.

"Thanks for that."

The two were silent for a while.

"So where are we going, anyway?" Merida asked, and Jim smiled.

"I live at the edge of the beach." She shuddered.

Jim looked up at her.

"If you don't want to go over there I understand."

Merida forced a laugh.

"No, I'm fine. Really."

The two settled into a mutual silence –with a few comments here and there- until they reached Jim's house.

"Wow." Merida said.

Jim's house looked old and futuristic at the same time. The framework looked like a multiple-story cottage, but the top of the house was covered with strange panels. Next to it was something that vaguely resembled a boat, except the sail was covered with the same strange panels.

"What is that?" Merida asked, pointing at it.

Jim laughed.

"What, my solar-surfer?" Merida stared at it and nodded. "It's kind of like a skateboard, but for the air."

She looked up at him.

"Skateboard?"

Jim raised his eyebrows at her.

"What, you don't know what a skateboard is?"

Merida looked at the solar-surfer and sighed.

"Compared to everyone else, where I came from didn't have a lot of technology."

Merida thought about her family and sighed again. She still missed them, but the ache for them wasn't as bad as before.

"Well, I'll take you flying on it sometime, because you're missing out if you've never been on one."

Merida smiled at him.

"Okay."

Jim held open the front door and the two walked into his house.

The front room had a few chairs and a large couch. Jim sank down onto the latter and sighed happily. Merida took the chair across from him.

"It's so good to be home." He said.

Suddenly, there was a loud squeaking noise, and a pink blob flew into Jim's face.

Merida gasped, but Jim was laughing.

"Morph!" He said as the creature licked his face.

Merida stared at it, wide eyed. Was that thing alive?

Jim looked at Merida's face and laughed.

"What, they don't have these where you come from?" Merida could only shake her head. "Go on Morph, say hi to Merida."

Morph flew up to her. She held out her hand, and he plopped down on it.

"Hello." Merida said, looking at Morph curiously.

Morph's body vibrated and then turned into a tiny Merida.

"Hello. Hello. Hello." It said in her voice. Merida gasped again and Jim laughed.

"See why he's called Morph?"

Morph changed back into his pink self and licked Merida's nose. She laughed.

"Yes, I see."

Merida looked at Jim. He looked exactly like the Jim that she had known, but acted so much different. Even his mannerisms didn't match Jafar's version of him.

He looked up, and she quickly looked away.

"How long have you been in Wonderland?"

Merida looked up to the ceiling, counting back the months.

"Almost a year." Jim laughed.

"You managed to get into this much trouble in less than a year?" Merida couldn't help but blush.

"I think trouble follows me around."

Jim nodded.

"I know how you feel." She looked up at him. He was smiling, but his eyes were sad.

"How long have you been here?" Merida asked, trying to get his mind off of whatever memory he was thinking of. Jim laughed.

"I've got to say, I've been here a while: Over ten years." Merida's eyes widened.

"Really? How young were you when you came here?"

Jim laughed.

"The same age as I am now."

Merida's mouth fell open.

"Wh…What?"

Jim smiled at her.

"Don't you know? Everyone in Wonderland grows to a certain age, and then they stop."

She tried to process this.

"People… don't… age…?"

Does that mean that she wasn't going to get older? Jim interrupted her confusion.

"It's different for everyone. I didn't end up aging past eighteen, which is how old I was when I got here. Peter was thirteen when he got here, but he hit seventeen before he stopped. You don't know how old you'll get until you stop aging."

Merida felt her heart sink. What if Merida grew older than all of her friends? What if she got decades older than Peter and Jim?

"Relax, Merida," Jim said "you're probably going to stay young. You've got that kind of spirit." Merida took a deep breath. He was probably right; There was no reason to worry. But why hadn't anyone told her this before?

Morph flew up to Merida and squeaked at her. He turned into a miniature Jim.

"There's no reason to worry. There's no reason to worry."

"This looks just like you." She said, holding the mini Jim in her palm.

"Yeah, he's pretty good at that, isn't he?" Jim looked down "I guess he's not the only one, though."

"Yeah." Merida said, looking away.

Jim's eyes shifted up to her.

"Merida, you don't know who did it, do you?" He asked.

Merida bit her lip. He looked like a child, scared, innocent, and trusting.

She cleared her throat. She didn't know if he was supposed to know who did it, but if she had a right to, didn't he, too?

"Someone named Jafar."

Jim's head snapped up.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

He was whispering, and he looked terrified.

"Yes, yes I'm sure. Are you all right Jim?" His hands were shaking lightly.

"Do you know who Jafar is, Merida?"

Merida shook her head slowly.

"He's an evil, evil guy from Jasmine's past."

Merida put he hands on her knees. How come so many people had enemies in the past?

"What does he want?"

Jim leaned in toward Merida.

"I don't know for sure, but I've been thinking."

She could see the wheels turning behind Jim's eyes.

"This person, who we now know is Jafar, seemed to be targeting you. Peter told me that Hook said that he needed more crew members, but I don't think that's exactly what's going on. Jafar has always been obsessed with ruling, so maybe he was looking for soldiers."

Merida stared at Jim. What he just said made so much sense, and she could see the growing truth behind it.

"How long did it take for you to come up with that?" She asked. Jim shrugged.

"From the time Peter told me what had happened to you telling me about it being Jafar."

Merida's eyes widened.

"How did you…?"

Jim ran his fingers through his hair.

"I like to figure things out." He said, leaning back.

Merida smiled at him. He was brilliant.

There was a ringing noise in the room, and Merida looked around. It sounded like a phone, but she didn't see one…

Jim looked around and then picked a small object up off of the table.

"Hello?" He said into it. Merida gasped.

"Is that thing a _phone_?"

She stared at it, wide eyed, and tried to poke it. Jim wriggled away from her finger and laughed. There was noise on the other end, and he cleared his throat.

"What? Yeah, I'm listening."

Merida leaned back into her hair, and Morph turned into the tiny phone. She laughed and put it to her ear.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hello? Hello? Hello?" Morph copied. He turned back into his pink form and licked in her ear.

"Eww! Morph!" Merida said, trying to grab him.

"All right. Yeah, thanks." Jim said into the phone, and then put it on the side table. It made a beeping noise.

He cupped his hands around his face and leaned toward Merida.

"That was Peter. He just told me about Jafar, but asked me not to tell you. Would you like to explain that?"

Merida sat up straight and then cleared her throat.

"Uhm…"

Jim looked at her suspiciously.

"Merida?"

She sighed. Well, there was no use keeping it from him.

"Sweet told me about Jafar because he said that I had a right to know."

Jim tucked his hair behind one of his ears, and then smirked.

"Well, yeah, I guess you do have a right to know. But Peter is going to find out sooner or later."

Merida sighed.

"I know."

Morph turned into a mini Merida and sighed.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it, because he may just tell you himself."

Merida looked at Jim.

"What? How do you know?"

Jim laughed.

"He wants both of us to head down to Tiana's place to figure out where to keep him. Now, I don't know about you, but I think it would be hard to keep someone from knowing whose trying to capture them if they're with you when you're deciding where to put the guy."

Merida laughed.

"All right then, let's go."


	12. Chapter Eleven: Wonderland's Mightiest

**Chapter Eleven: Wonderland's Mightiest Heroes**

Merida knocked three times at Tiana's door. After Peter had told Jim about a meeting that was going to take place regarding Jafar, Jim and Merida headed over.

Peter opened the door.

"Hey Jim, Hey Mer." He said, letting them in.

They walked into a sitting room where Tiana, Naveen, Mulan, and Jasmine were sitting. The three sat down together, with Merida in the middle. Tiana motioned to them.

"So, Peter, do you want to tell Jim and Merida what's going on?" Peter turned to the other two.

"So, we know whos been doing this." He took a breath. "His name is Jafar. He uses magic to shapeshift; He's from Jasmine's old universe."

Merida looked to Jasmine.

"When he wants something, nothing will get in his way." Jasmine said.

Peter shot her a look, but she ignored him.

"Where is he?" Merida and Jim asked.

They looked at each other and Jim smirked.

"He's still back at your place, Mer. Jack, Sweet, and Aladdin are making sure he doesn't escape." Peter looked between Merida and Jim. "We're trying to figure out what to do with him."

"We can't just keep him in the dungeon, like everyone else." Mulan said, leaning forward. "That's where he was last time, but he got out."

"Last time?" Merida asked, looking at Peter.

"He doesn't exactly have the best track record." Tiana said.

Naveen nodded.

"We need to keep him somewhere his friends don't know about." He said.

"You don't happen to have a dungeon, do you?" Jim asked him. Naveen shook his head.

"No. Sorry, my friend." Peter shot up.

"I think I know some people who can help. Come on, Merida." He grabbed his bag.

"Wait, what?" Merida asked, confused.

"I'll come with you." Jim said, starting to get up.

"No, Jim, we need you here. We think you can help us with something." Jasmine said.

Jim looked at her for a second, and then sat down.

"We'll be back soon." Peter said, and began to walk out. Merida looked around the room and then followed him.

Once they were outside, she stopped him.

"What's going on?" She asked, looking up at him.

He sighed.

"We have to go talk to the Avengers." He said "I think they can help us."

Merida looked Peter over. His clothes were wrinkled, his hat was crooked, and he looked tired.

She fixed his hat for him.

"Are you okay?" He grabbed her hand.

"Yeah, I'll be better when this is all over." He smiled slightly. "So, do you want to try flying on your own?"

Merida stared at him.

"Peter, not everyone can fly." He laughed at her.

"Of course everyone can fly! You just have to try."

Merida stared at him. It wasn't the most ridiculous thing he'd asked her to do.

She sighed.

"What do I need to do?" Peter smiled.

"You just need to think of what makes you the happiest, and concentrate on that until you're in the air." Peter closed his eyes and then started to levitate. "See?" He said.

He was still holding her hand, but now her arm was at an angle because he was in the air.

Merida closed her eyes. What made her the happiest? She tried to concentrate.

Slowly, a memory of her family came back to her. They were sitting around their dinner table, and her father was telling stories. She felt her toes scrape the ground.

"Yeah!" Peter yelled, pulling her higher. Merida's eyes widened, and then she laughed.

She tried to pull her hand free, but Peter held it tighter.

"Careful, there. It only works if you're close." He said, and they began to fly.

Merida looked around herself. They were flying above the tree tops.

"Where are we supposed to find them?" She asked, looking around.

"Their tower. It's in the mountains over there." Peter pointed straight ahead with his free hand.

Merida squinted. A few miles away the trees began to give way to brown rock.

"Did Jim's house look untouched?" Peter asked, dipping Merida down lower and then bringing her back up.

"Yeah, the only thing that had moved around was Morph."

Peter's eyes brightened.

"Morph! That little guy is a ton of fun." Merida laughed.

"So it's a guy?"

Peter span them around.

"Of course!"

"How do you know?"

"Because-" Peter's eyebrows pulled together and he put on his thinking face. "Well, he acts like a guy."

Merida laughed, and Peter started flying toward the ground.

"We're here." He said.

They landed in front of a huge structure.

The tower was multiple stories high, and made of glass and metal. On the top, the word "Avengers" was sculpted out of more metal.

Peter knocked on the door.

"Who is there?" A voice asked.

Merida looked around, trying to see where it was coming from.

"Peter Pan." Peter said, smiling.

"Please hold." The voice said.

Merida looked up at Peter and he laughed.

"That's Jarvis. He's not really a person, but he lives inside of the house."

Merida stared at him.

"You'll see." He said.

The door opened and they walked in.

Merida stared at the door. Did it just open on its own?

"Hawk Eye?" Peter asked, looking around.

Merida was still staring at the door.

"Peter!"

She looked up to see a man walking towards them. His clothing was purple and black, and he had a bow on his back.

"Who's this?" He asked when he approached them.

"Merida." Peter said. "Merida, this is Hawk Eye."

He shook her hand.

"You can call me Clint. It's nice to finally meet you." He said, giving Peter a look.

Merida looked at Peter. What did that mean?

He shrugged.

"We need your help." Peter said.

Hawk Eye smiled.

"Is this a job for everyone?" He asked, and Peter smiled back.

"Yeah, it would be good to have everyone."

Hawk Eye pressed a button on his watch; It beeped.

"They should be here in a few minutes."

Merida stared at him.

"Technology new to you?" He asked, and she nodded.

"The button he pressed sends a signal to everyone else and tells them to go to the meeting room." Peter said.

"What meeting room?" Merida asked.

"The one we're going to."

Merida turned her head to the staircase and saw a woman walking down. She was wearing all black, had red lips, and medium-length red hair.

"Natasha Romanoff." She said.

"Merida DunBroch." Merida said.

"DunBroch?" Peter asked. Merida nodded.

"Some people also call her 'Black Widow'." Clint said to Merida.

"If by some people you mean Director Fury, then yes. This way." Natasha said, and led them down a hallway.

They walked into a large room, containing only a large table and chairs surrounding it.

"You two can sit here." Clint said.

Peter sat down and Clint pulled out Merida's chair.

"Thank you." She said, and he nodded.

He and Natasha took the two seats across from them.

A large blonde man walked into the room, wearing clothing that reminded Merida of her father's old war suit.

"Has something happened?" He asked, looking at Clint.

"No," Natasha said "Peter has a job for us."

The man clapped his hand on Peter's shoulder.

"Ah, Peter! It has been too long since we have seen you."

He looked at Merida.

"Ah, you have brought back a wife!"

Merida and Peter looked at each other and then laughed hysterically.

"She's just a friend, Thor." Natasha said.

"My apologies." Thor said.

As he was sitting down, another man walked in. He was dressed in jeans with a flannel shirt tucked into them. His hair was neatly combed, and he smiled.

"Hey, Cap." Peter said.

Merida smiled. Peter made friends with everyone, it seemed.

"Hey, Peter." He said, shaking his hand.

"This is Merida. Merida, this is Captain America."

He shook her hand.

"Steve." He said with a wink.

Out in the hallway, there seemed to be arguing. Steve sat down.

"Looks like Tony and Bruce are going at it again."

"For the last time, Stark, I'm telling you, I did not eat your leftover Shwarma."

The door opened, and two men walked in.

"No, Banner, I'm pretty sure that you did." The taller one said. "But we'll talk about this later. Peter! How are you doin' buddy?"

"Good, Tony." He said, and he motioned to Merida. "This is Merida. Merida, this is Tony Stark, and that's Bruce Banner."

"But you can call me Iron Man, and that man over there just _loves _to be called the Hulk."

Tony sat down at the head of the table, and Bruce took the seat next to Merida.

He leaned over to her.

"Just call me Bruce, and don't call him Iron Man. It gives him an over-exaggerated feeling of importance."

Merida nodded.

"So, why are we here?" Tony said, leaning back and folding his hands behind his head.

"We need your help with a guy we caught." Peter said.

Tony looked at him.

"Well, if you already caught him, then what do you need us for?"

Peter smirked.

"He's kind of hard to lock up."

Merida looked around the table. Most everyone seemed interested.

"Why not just kill the man?" Thor asked.

Steve rolled his eyes.

"We can't just go around killing people, Thor."

"Besides, people can't die here, right?" Bruce asked, fixing his glasses.

"He's right." Natasha said.

"Well, we could put him in one of the cells." Clint said.

"And let the man know that we exist?" Tony looked at Peter. "He is a man, right Red?"

Merida raised her eyebrows.

"Red?" She asked.

Tony turned to her.

"Oh, I guess that could be a little confusing, with you and him and our red-head over there…"

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, he's a guy." Peter said.

"Let's just establish right now that he's Red. Can everyone agree on that?" Tony looked around the table. "Well, no one said anything, so I'm taking it as a yes."

Steve put his forehead against one of his hands.

"Do you think Fury knows anyone?"

"Let's not involve Fury if it's possible." Tony said, staring at him.

"What about that spider child who can climb up walls and shoot webs from his fingertips?" Thor asked.

Merida stared at him. Who in the world was that?

"Spider Mans taking a holiday." Clint said.

Tony popped a berry into his mouth. Where did those come from?

"Plus, he gets himself into more trouble than good."

Steve looked like he was going to object, but he shrugged.

"What about the big glass box of fun?" Bruce said sarcastically.

Everyone went silent.

"That could work." Natasha said, thinking.

"The what?" Peter asked.

"Oh, I think you misunderstood, I wasn't being serious." Bruce said, but they ignored him.

"If we can get away from Fury and bring it back here, it would be perfect." Steve said, smiling.

"Won't be too hard, we just have to stay out of range of his good eye." Tony joked, and laughed once.

"Guys." Bruce sounded desperate.

"It wouldn't even take a full day." Clint was lost in thought.

"The area he keeps it in is usually vacant in the mornings." Natasha said.

"What's going to happen when he notices it's missing?" Bruce asked, frustrated.

"He won't, because you're going to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s security system." Tony said.

This conversation had flown over Merida's head a long time ago, but Peter seemed to understand what was going on. He would probably explain it later.

Bruce looked around the table.

"Fine." He said, slouching into his chair.

"That's why I love you, Banner." Bruce looked like he was annoyed, and he let out a huge breath.

Tony turned to Peter.

"We'll have a place for him tomorrow."

Peter smiled.

"Good. Come on, Merida, let's go tell the others."

Merida looked at Tony.

"Thank you."

She felt like it was a necessary thing to say.

"No problem, Curls." He said to her.

She and Peter walked out the door.

"Curls?" She asked Peter, and he laughed.

"Tony likes nick names."

Merida smiled.

"I can see that, _Red_." She said, poking Peter's stomach. They both laughed. "So what exactly just happened in there?"

Peter scratched his head.

"I don't really know. It happens every time I ask them for anything."

Merida sighed. She had been looking around inside, and she didn't recognize a lot of the new technology.

"Why do they have so many advanced things?" She asked.

"Tony and Bruce are scientists; They make a lot of the stuff."

Merida nodded, and Peter patted her shoulder.

"It's okay, Mer, I had to learn about a lot of stuff, too."

She smiled at him.

"Thanks, Peter." He smiled a wide smile.

"Ready to fly again?" Merida nodded.

"Yeah, let's go."


	13. Chapter Twelve: The Place

**Chapter Twelve: The Place**

Peter and Merida touched down in front of Tiana's house.

Merida started to walk towards the door, but Peter stopped her.

"There's one thing I forgot to tell you."

"Yeah?"

Peter smirked at her.

"Well, the Avengers don't really want people to know that they're here, so we can't tell them who's helping us."

Merida raised her eyebrows.

"Then why do I get to know?"

Peter smiled at her.

"Because you're special."

Merida smiled, and they walked into the sitting room. It looked as if no one had moved

"So?" Jasmine asked, crossing her arms.

"We'll have a place for him tomorrow." Peter announced proudly.

"Where?" Jim asked, looking up at Merida.

"It's a secret." Peter said.

Merida nodded.

"Yup, sorry."

Jim smiled.

"Well, as long as it's taken care of, it doesn't matter, no?" Naveen asked, smiling.

"That's right." Tiana said.

"So, where are we keeping him tonight?" Jim asked.

Merida bit her lip; They hadn't thought of that.

"We'll keep him at Merida's." Peter turned to her "You can stay with me again."

Tiana and Jasmine exchanged knowing looks, but Jim's eyes widened. Merida felt her cheeks blush.

"Yeah." She said.

Jim was still staring at her.

"I'll explain later." She mouthed to him, and he smiled.

"So, meeting dismissed, then." Tiana said, rising.

Everyone got up and started to walk out. Jim walked over to Peter and Merida, and Peter smiled at him.

"Hey, do you want to come shoot bows with me and Merida?"

Jim smiled.

"Yeah, sure, I could go for that."

Merida smiled back at him. She wanted to spend more time with the real Jim.

"All right, then. Meet us at" Peter looked around to make sure no one was listening "The Place."

Jim nodded and then walked away.

"What's-"

"Shh!" Peter pulled Merida out the door. "You can't let anyone hear about it. It's a secret place."

She laughed.

"All right, then." She said "Where is it?"

"I'll show you."

He grabbed her hand and they jumped off of the ground.

As they began to fly, Merida thought of the time that she had spent with the real Jim. Jafar never came close to capturing who he was. Suddenly, she remembered what he had said about aging.

"Is it true that not everyone ages here?"

Peter looked at her.

"Who told you that?"

She looked down. The trees that they were flying over were so many different colors.

"Jim."

Peter sighed.

"Yeah, it's true. I didn't want you to worry, so I didn't tell you."

"Peter, I'd rather know than not know."

He smiled at her.

"I'm sorry." He said, and he squeezed her hand.

"It's okay." There was a brief pause, and Merida asked the question that had been gnawing at her since Jim told her about aging. "Do you think I'm getting older?"

Peter stared at her, made his thinking face, and then wrinkled his nose. She laughed.

"No, you're not going to get older. Do you know how I know?"

Merida smiled.

"How?"

"Because it's been a year and you look exactly the same. So stop worrying."

They both laughed, and Peter looked down.

"There!" He said.

They dropped to in the middle of the forest, and Merida looked around. At first she didn't notice anything, but when she looked at the trees more closely, she could see that they had red targets painted on them.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Peter asked, leaning against one of the trees.

He handed Merida her bow.

"Yeah." Merida said.

She reached for her arrows, but Peter swatted her hand.

"We have to use special arrows." He said, and he pulled out two bundles that Merida had never seen before; One blue and one red.

"What are those for?" Merida asked.

Peter laughed.

"You didn't think that we were just going to shoot targets all day, did you?" He asked.

Merida shrugged.

"The blue ones are for us, and the red ones are for Jim. We're playing a game kind of like tag. The arrows don't hurt when they hit you, but they leave a little mark of the color you were hit with."

"Isn't it unfair for the two of us to go against Jim?"

Peter looked up at her.

"No, he's got Morph with him."

Merida was going to protest, but for all she knew, Morph was great at this game.

"Yeah, and you're going down, Peter." Jim said, coming out from behind a tree. Morph flew into Peter's face and turned into a little Jim.

"You're going down, Peter. You're going down, Peter."

Peter laughed and swatted at him. Morph turned back into himself and licked Peter's face.

"So, how exactly do we play this game?" Merida asked.

"There aren't really any rules, you just have to stay in the forest and try not to get hit." Peter said, and he handed Jim the red arrows.

Jim pulled out his bow and Merida gasped. It looked like it was made of metal, and it had all kinds of different gears on it.

"Like it?" Jim asked, loading his arrows into it "I made it a while ago."

Merida nodded, but held her bow tight. Her father had made it with his own hands, and she knew it would never fail her.

"Five minutes?" Peter asked, and Jim nodded.

Morph turned into a little red arrow.

"GO!" Peter yelled.

He grabbed Merida's hand and literally pulled her off of the ground. They flew onto a small platform in a tree a ways away.

"Forgot to mention," Peter said once they were sitting down. "we have to take his flag."

"What flag?" Merida asked, and Peter pointed up.

She looked, and above them was a blue flag attached to a pole.

"Jims on foot, so it's going to be a while until he gets to his base." Peter pulled a small bag out of his backpack. "Want some berries?"

Merida laughed.

"Sure."

As she was putting them into her mouth, there was a buzzing noise. She and Peter looked around, confused.

Suddenly, Jim came flying through the trees on his solar-surfer.

"Aww, I forgot about that!" Peter whipped out his bow and began shooting arrows. "I'll go get his flag, you keep him away from ours!"

Merida pulled out her bow and shot at Jim. He dodged every one, but it looked like he wasn't getting closer, either.

"Come on, Merida, I thought you were good at this!" Jim said as he shot an arrow. Merida rolled away from it, and she got an idea.

Merida loaded another arrow, aimed for Jim, and then shot to the left of him. The arrow got his arm, and he landed his solar-surfer on the ground.

"Guess I spoke too soon."

He yelled up, and he began to climb. He was fast, and pulled himself up onto the platform in less than a minute.

"How are you doing?" He asked her, sitting against the tree.

"Pretty good, actually. This is more fun than I thought."

They laughed.

"Well," Jim said "Peters the one who came up with the game. He's pretty good at that kind of stuff."

"Tell me about it." Merida said, rolling her eyes. She couldn't even count all of the different games she had played with him.

"So, how long have you guys been, ya know." Jim said, taking some berries from the bag and popping them in his mouth. It took her a second to realize what he was talking about.

"Me and Peter? Oh, no. No, we aren't…" Merida said, looking into the trees. She didn't know what was going on anymore.

"Oh." Jim said, smiling at her.

Just then, Peter flew through the trees, gripping a red flag.

"Victory!" He shouted, landing on the platform.

Morph flew over his shoulder, covered in blue coloring. He looked down at Jim and Merida.

"Oh. Good job, Mer. Do you guys wanna play again?"

"Yeah, but this time I get Merida." Jim said, standing up. He offered her his hand and she took it.

Peter looked at her.

"Are you sure you wanna play with him? Without me on your team, you'll lose no matter what."

Merida smiled at him.

"Wanna bet, Peter?" He smirked back at her.

"Why, yes, I believe I do. We can talk about what the loser has to do later."

Merida nodded and dropped her arrows.

"Let's go, Jim." Merida said, climbing down.

"I'll give you guys five minutes." Peter said "And then I'm coming after you."

Merida and Jim climbed onto the solar-surfer.

"See you then, Peter." Jim said, and kicked the vehicle to life.

It took all of two minutes to get to Jim's base. He parked the solar-surfer on top of the platform and sat down on top of it.

"Well, we have about three minutes until Peter comes looking for us." Jim said "Do you have a plan?"

Merida smiled.

"You just need to hold him off, and I'll get the flag."

Peter didn't know how good she was at climbing trees.

Jim smiled.

"Sounds good. Do you want to take the solar-surfer?"

Merida shook her head.

"I'll be fine."

Jim smirked.

"Well, see you on the other side of victory."

Merida laughed and climbed down the tree.

Once she was down, she ran into the forest, found a medium-height tree, climbed up it, and looked around. She couldn't see Peter, but the branches were close enough that she could jump from tree to tree.

After jumping through about ten trees, Merida heard a noise. She clung around the base of the tree she was in and tried to stay as still as possible. A few feet in front of her face, Peter flew past, whooping. She quickly made her way to Peter's base.

Merida jumped onto the platform and looked around. The flag was a few feet above her, hanging on a string. It took a few jumps for her to reach it, but when she did, she wrapped her fingers around it and pulled.

She went as fast as she could back to her base. Jim and Peter were sitting on the platform, covered in paint and laughing. Merida jumped onto it.

"We win." She said, smiling.

Jim smirked.

"Well, actually, I don't think you do." Peter said, smiling.

Merida cocked her head.

Suddenly, the flag in her hand changed into a little Peter.

"I don't think you do. I don't think you do."

In half a second, Peter had their flag in his hand, waving it in the air.

"I will never fall!" He yelled, and then fell on the floor laughing.

Morph flew up to Jim and licked his face.

"Yeah, yeah. I know you're sorry." Jim said, patting Morph.

They all sat down on the floor, breathing hard.

"I think that'll be our last round." Jim said. Peter sighed.

"Yeah, mine too. Merida?" Merida sprawled out on the ground.

"I'm done." Jim got up.

"Come on, little guy." Morph flew up to Jim. "See you later, Peter. Merida."

He got on his solar-surfer and flew away.

"Hey, Merida." Peter said, lying down next to her on his back.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"I won." He breathed, smiling at her.

"Oh. Yeah. Right." Merida said, looking up at the sky. He had never actually said what he wanted if he won. "What do you want?"

Peter was quiet for a second.

"Can I save it for another time?"

Merida laughed

"Sure, but you have to remember, because I'm not reminding you."

She stood up.

"Come on, Peter, we should get home. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

Peter sighed.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

The two flew to Peter's house and went to their separate rooms. Merida was so tired from the day's games that she fell asleep immediately.


	14. Chapter Thirteen: The Big Glass BoxofFun

**Chapter Thirteen: The Big Glass Box of Fun**

"Come on, Merida, time to get up."

Merida rubbed her eyes and sat up. She blinked a few times.

"Good morning." Peter was standing in her doorway, already ready for the day.

Merida looked around, disoriented.

"Oh, right." She thought to herself. She had stayed at Peter's last night.

"Good morning." She replied back. Peter smiled at her.

"Hawk Eye just called and gave us instructions on where the cage is."

Merida looked around the room.

"Okay, just give me fifteen minutes."

Once Peter was out, she walked into the bathroom and quickly took a shower.

She dried off and looked around. There was a stack of clothes neatly folded on the counter for her. Merida smiled. Tiana must have brought them over. She put them on and went downstairs.

Peter was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a glass of milk. Merida smiled at him.

"French toast or pancakes?" Peter's eyes brightened.

"Pancakes. Can you make the chocolate ones again?"

Merida walked to the cupboard.

"Yup."

She got out the ingredients and mixed them together. After she had made about a dozen, Merida carried them to the table. Peter excitedly dropped some on his plate.

"Hey, Merida?" Merida put a pancake on her own plate and then looked up at him.

"Yeah?" She popped a piece of pancake inter her mouth

"How come you never told me your last name was Dunbroch?" Merida chewed thoughtfully.

"I don't know. We've never really talked about my old universe." Peter shoved more pancake bits into his mouth.

"Will you tell me about it?" Merida smiled.

"Well, the kingdom I lived in was called Dunbroch." Peter laughed.

"That's funny, it has the same name as you do." Merida laughed, too.

"Well, it was named after my family." Peter's eyes widened.

"Really? Why?"

Merida could see her little brothers asking these questions so long ago. She felt a small pain in her chest, but ignored it and continued.

"Well, all of the kingdoms are named after the ruling clans." Peter looked confused and chewed his pancake slowly.

"Ruling clans?"

Merida looked out one of the windows. She had told Peter about her family many times, but had always left out the fact that they were royalty. It just didn't seem important here.

"Yes, my father is the king of Dunbroch." Peter's eyes widened and he stared at her.

"Your father is a king?" Merida looked at Peter carefully. He seemed to be having a hard time processing this new information.

"Yes…"

Peter swallowed his food and cleared his throat.

"So you're a princess then?"

Merida felt another stab of pain in her chest. The only person who ever really called her a princess was her mother.

"Yes."

Suddenly, a grin stretched across Peter's face.

"That's so awesome! Why didn't you tell me?" Merida rolled her eyes.

"I don't know, I didn't really think about it." Peter raised his eyebrows at her.

"You didn't think about the fact that you're a princess." Merida felt old memories stirring in her mind.

"I do that a lot." Peter shoved the rest of his food in his mouth.

"Aren't princesses supposed to be all frilly and girly?"

She sighed and thought back to a time when that was her biggest concern in life.

"Tiana is a princess, too." Peter looked at Merida like she was crazy.

"Yeah, but she wasn't _born _a princess."

She rose and took Peter's plate and her own to the sink.

"Well, I'm just different then." Peter smiled at her.

"Different is a good thing."

Merida thought about the bear incident a few years ago, and how her mother had finally accepted that there had to be change in the kingdom.

"Yes, different is a good thing."

Peter got up and scrubbed the dishes that Merida had in the sink. They walked out on the porch and he pulled a piece of paper out of one of his many hidden pockets.

"So, Hawk Eye said to go look at the cage before we bring Jafar to it." Peter looked at the paper. "We need to go to… Oh."

"What?" Merida asked, and Peter smiled.

"They put it underground." Merida stared at him.

"_Underground_?" He was looking at the paper in his hand.

"Yeah, there's a bunch of underground tunnels underneath Wonderland. It looks like the entrance is north of Tiana's house. Ready?"

Merida stared at Peter for a second, absorbing this new information. What in the world were underground tunnels doing here?

"Yeah."

The two rose off the ground and flew in the general direction of Tiana's house.

"Why are there underground tunnels?" Peter made a thinking face.

"I'm not sure. They've been here longer than I have."

Merida thought about this and nodded. If Peter didn't know, then it was probably just a mystery.

They landed just north of Tiana's house, like Peter had said. Merida looked around, and Peter pointed at a spot of lighter dirt. If Merida focused on it, she could see the slight outline of a trap door.

"We just have to go straight through the main tunnel and we should run into it eventually." Merida nodded.

"Let's go."

Peter tugged the door open, revealing a ladder that looked like it was about to crumble into sand. They both looked at each other.

"Ladies first." Peter said, motioning for Merida to lead.

She stuck her tongue out at him but began to descend into the cave. To Merida's great surprise, the ladder felt sturdy under her hands. After she had gotten down a few rungs, Peter followed her.

"Can you see the ground yet, Mer?"

Merida rolled her eyes, but looked down anyway. The tunnel was so impossibly dark that she could barely see her own hands.

"Not yet, Peter."

The two continued climbing in silence. Merida began to let her mind wander. There wasn't much to keep her focused when she couldn't see anything.

Her hand began to slip. She felt a scream climb up her throat, but was able to grab the rung before she fell more than a few inches.

She stopped climbing to catch her breath.

"Merida! Are you okay?"

Peter had also stopped climbing.

"I'm okay, I just slipped."

He let out a huge breath.

"Be careful."

Merida took a deep breath and then resumed climbing.

After a few minutes, she felt the ground beneath her feet.

She looked around, but couldn't see much of anything, so she started to feel the walls around her. The tunnel seemed to be extremely narrow.

Peter landed on the ground behind her.

"Merida?"

Merida could hear his feet crunching the rocks on the floor.

"Over here."

Merida tried to walk to Peter, but they crashed into each other. He grabbed her waist to steady her.

"Oops. Sorry." He said, letting go of her. She felt her face grow warm.

"It's okay. Let's go."

Peter grabbed her arm and began to lead her down the small path.

Merida kept waiting for her eyes to adjust, but it was evident that it wasn't going to happen. How could it be so impossibly dark?

Her foot caught on something and she fell forward on top of Peter. They both crashed onto the ground.

"Careful." He said.

"Sorry."

It took a few minutes, but they managed to get up and begin walking again. Merida shook her head. She really needed to start paying more attention.

After another half hour, Merida noticed that the path was slowly widening.

"Here." Peter said.

He stopped walking. Merida strained her eyes to try to see anything.

"I can't see anything."

"Hold on a sec." Peter said.

Merida could hear him digging around in his backpack. Suddenly, there was light. She looked in Peter's hand and felt her eyes widen.

"You had your flashlight this whole time?" Peter smirked.

"Maybe."

Merida rolled her eyes and looked toward the area that was now illuminated.

Straight ahead, the light was gleaming on something glass. Peter pointed the flashlight to their right, revealing a switch on the wall. Merida flipped it on, and the entire cave was lit up.

The cave was large, but most of it was taken up by a giant glass container, which was surrounded by a guard rail. Against the rail was a large board of buttons, switches, and dials.

"Is that what we need?" Merida asked, staring at the board. What was the use of all of those switches?

Peter smiled.

"I think so."


	15. Chapter Fourteen: The Cave

**Chapter Fourteen: The Cave**

Merida opened her front door carefully.

After she and Peter had made sure that the cage would hold Jafar, they told everyone to meet at Merida's. All that was left for them to do now now was get Jafar into the one thing that could hold him.

Jack, Sweet, and Aladdin were sitting around Merida's table playing cards. They looked like they had been at it for quite a long time.

Merida gasped, and the three men looked up at her.

When she had left her home, a clone of Jim had been tied up in a chair. Tied to that same chair now was a man with olive skin, ragged clothing, black eyes, and a black beard.

Merida felt Sweet's hand on her shoulder.

"That's what Jafar really looks like. Nasty, isn't it?"

Jafar looked up at them, sneering.

"It's time." Peter said, walking into the room.

Jack stood up, grinning.

"Where are we goin'?"

Peter gave Jafar a sideways glance.

"You'll see when we get there."

Peter kneeled down next to Jafar and began to untie his bonds. Merida got on the other side of the chair, acting as a guard.

Once he was untied, Peter tied Jafar's hands in front of him.

When Peter had Jafar secure, everyone walked out of the house and joined the others.

The entire group consisted of Peter, Merida, Jack, Aladdin, Doctor Sweet, Jim, Tiana, Naveen, Jasmine, and Mulan. Each one of them was positioned around Jafar.

Peter set off in the direction of the cave, and everyone followed him.

Aladdin and Naveen kept a small conversation going, but other than that, the walk was silent.

Once they got to the trap door, Sweet walked up to it and put his hand on his chin.

"Peter, we can't all fit down there."

Peter looked around at everyone and nodded.

"Me, Merida, and Aladdin will go down. The rest of you, stay out here and stop anyone from coming out."

Aladdin nodded and began to climb down. Once he had gone a few feet down the hole, Merida began to descend the ladder.

After a few seconds, she could hear (and partially see) someone, most likely Peter, pushing Jafar towards the hole.

"I can't very well climb with my hands tied, can I?" Jafar said, looking down the hole. He smiled at Merida. She focused on her hands.

There was a brief silence, and then someone began to untie Jafar's hands. After a few seconds, Jafar began to climb down, with Peter climbing as close to him as possible.

The four were silent as they went down the ladder, excluding Jafar, who was softly humming. Merida carefully put her hands on each rung, making sure that she wouldn't fall.

When they had all gotten down, Peter re-tied Jafar's hands.

"Not too tight." He said, smiling at Peter.

Peter pulled the rope hard, and they walked down the narrow path to the cave in silence.

When Merida got into the room, she felt along the wall for the light switch.

"Peter, I can't find the switch, can you help me?"

There was no response.

"Peter?"

Merida tried to look for him, squinting into the darkness. No one responded.

"Peter? Peter!" Aladdin called out from the other side of the cave.

Suddenly, the lights turned on. Aladdin's fingers scraped off of the switch, and Merida looked around.

The only people in the cave were she and Aladdin.

Merida ran down the path, screaming Peter's name, but there was no response.

Once she had gotten back to the ladder, she quickly climbed up it, taking two rungs at a time.

It took her two and a half minutes to get up to the surface, and she flung herself onto the ground.

"Merida!"

Tiana grabbed her arms and sat her up.

"They're gone. They're gone." Merida said, panting.

How could she not notice? She felt a stab of guilt in her chest.

Aladdin crawled out of the hole and sat next to Merida. Jasmine went to him and rubbed his shoulders.

"They?" Mulan asked, kneeling next to Merida.

Merida was breathing hard, and she could see her vision going blurry from tears.

"Peter and Jafar."

The only sounds were Merida and Aladan's labored breathing.

"That's impossible, no one came out." Jim whispered.

"Then," Merida said, looking up at Jim "then they must still be in there somewhere."

She got up to go back in the cave, but Jim put his hand on her shoulder.

"Stay here, I'll go."

She looked up at him, her face hard.

"No."

They stared at each other for a long second, and then Jim sighed.

"Well, I'm at least coming with you."

Merida was going to protest, but every second that passed, Peter could be getting farther and farther into the caves. She nodded quickly climbed down the ladder.

When they both were on the ground, Jim put something long and skinny in her hand.

"Here." He said.

She looked down at it and realized that it was a flashlight. She turned it on and whipped the light beam along the sides of the cave, and her jaw fell open.

Each wall was dotted with different turns and pathways.

There was a small silence, and then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, Merida, We'll find him."

She couldn't say anything, so she just nodded.

"Where were you when you last heard Peter?"

Merida felt panic creeping up her spine.

"Right here."

Jim took a sharp breath.

"Well, then, let's get started."

Merida started to go into the closest path on the left.

"You take the right and I'll take the left."

Jim grabbed her arm.

"Merida, that's a terrible idea."

She was becoming impatient. They had already wasted so much time already, and there was no way of knowing how long Peter and Jafar had been gone.

"But we'll find them faster!"

Jim pulled her face an inch away from his. She tried to wriggle away, but he held her tightly in place.

"Merida. It's not going to help if one of us gets lost, or worse, finds them and can't handle Jafar alone. We need to stay together."

Merida was beginning to feel how close his face was to hers.

"Fine." She cleared her throat "Let's start with the left."

Jim nodded, and they walked into the first sub-cave. After a few minutes, they hit a dead end.

Merida turned around to walk back, but Jim ran into her, pressing her against the wall.

"Oh. Sorry." He said, backing up.

"It's okay." She said, feeling a blush creep up her neck.

She quickly walked to the next path.

The next few were similar in structure, and brought no sign of Jafar or Peter.

"If they're all like this, then this should be easy, right?" Jim asked.

Merida looked at him. Nothing was ever easy.

The forth path they chose went down just like the others. Merida was expecting a dead end, but instead they hit a fork. She shone the flashlight down each one, but couldn't see anything.

"Left?" Jim asked, and Merida nodded.

The path got smaller and smaller until Merida thought that she wouldn't be able to go anymore. She was about to suggest that they turn around and go down the right path, but her flashlight caught a curving of the wall.

Merida and Jim ran until they were inside of the small cave.

"Mer?"

She shone the light to her left and saw Peter lying on the ground.

"Peter!"

Merida dropped to the floor and tried to help him up. He looked like his arm was hurt, and his face was bleeding in a few different places.

"Where's Jafar?" Jim asked after Peter had stood up.

"I don't know. He threw me in here and then left."

Jim nodded and put his arm around Peter, and the two helped him onto the main pathway.

"I'm going to keep looking for Jafar. You stay here with Peter, okay?"

Merida nodded and carefully lowered Peter to the ground.

She sat across from him and looked his face over. He must have put up a good fight.

"What happened?"

Peter rubbed his arm lightly.

"I don't know. I was walking, and then all the sudden, Jafar had his hand over my mouth. He managed to pull me into that cave and knock me out. I woke up when I heard you guys coming."

Merida carefully wiped the blood from Peter's face. To her relief, it looked like he wasn't actually bleeding anymore.

"Oh, Peter." She said.

It seemed like this always happened. He got hurt trying to save her, and she was perfectly fine.

Was that fair?

He looked up at her and smiled. It looked pained.

"It's okay, Mer."

Merida looked at his face for a long time. Something felt wrong.

"Merida?"

She had seen that look before.

"Are you okay?"

How could she be so stupid?

"Mer?"

She jumped on top of him, pinning him to the floor.

"What the-?"

He looked up at her face, and she stared back down at him.

"You're not Peter."


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Broken

**Chapter Fifteen: Broken**

"You're not Peter." Merida repeated, holding him down.

He wriggled beneath her.

"Of course I am."

He was looking at her with one of Peter's innocent expressions.

Jafar had slipped up this time; He had tried to impersonate someone who she already knew.

"Jim! Jim!" Merida yelled out.

The impersonator's body thrashed underneath her.

"Mer, this is ridiculous!"

"Don't call me that." She snapped back at him.

Jim came running into the cave.

"What the-?"

"This isn't Peter." Merida said, staring at the boy underneath her.

"Are you positive?" Jim asked, looking at her.

"Yeah, are you?" Peter said.

She stared into his eyes for one long second.

"Yes." She looked over at Jim. "Help me get him into the cage."

Jim stood where he was for a second, and then walked over to Merida.

They pulled him up and carried him by the arms to the room at the end of the path.

"Merida, this is stupid. You know that it's me. Look at me. Look at me, Merida!"

Merida rolled her eyes. The real Peter wouldn't complain this much or be annoyed with her for even considering the possibility of him being Jafar.

She continued walking, keeping her eyes locked on the path.

Once they reached the cell, she threw him in and Jim closed it.

"Go tell the others."

Jim nodded and jogged out of the cave, and Merida walked up the glass.

"Where. Is. Peter." She said, staring into Peter's eyes.

He looked back at her, cold.

"I am Peter."

She hit the glass.

"No, you're not!"

He shook his head.

"I thought you knew me better than this."

Merida squared her jaw.

"And I thought you wouldn't underestimate me."

Jim came back with the rest of the group, and they all stared at the man in the cage. It was a tight fit, but everyone managed to get into the room.

"Are you sure this is him?" Mulan asked, staring.

"Positive." Merida said, and she turned to them. "Peter's still out there somewhere, we have to find him. He could be hurt."

Mulan nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait." Aladdin said, looking at Merida.

"What?" She asked, annoyed.

Why was he wasting time?

"How do we know that you're Merida?"

They all stared at her, and she sucked in a breath.

"We're wasting time."

"No, I don't think we are." Aladdin said, looking her over.

"This is ridiculous." Merida said, looking at all of her friends.

"Jim?" She asked, turning her head to him.

He stared at her, and then shrugged.

"Fine, I'll prove it." Merida spat, looking around at her friends. "Ask me something. Anything that Jafar wouldn't know."

Her friends stared at her for a few seconds, and then Tiana stepped forward.

"When's the wedding?"

"TIANA!"

"That's her." Tiana said, smiling.

Merida smiled back at her. Jafar definitely wouldn't know about Tiana's jokes.

Aladdin looked like he was going to protest, but Tiana held up a finger.

"Excuse me, but I think that I know Merida pretty well, and I say that this is Merida." She leaned into his face "Do you have a problem with that?"

Everyone looked at Aladdin, and he shrugged.

"All right, guys, let's go find him."

Merida pulled her eyebrows together. Who put him in charge?

Jasmine leaned into Merida.

"He just gets like this." She whispered in her ear. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay." Merida whispered back.

Everyone walked out, leaving Peter, Merida, and Jim.

"One of us needs to stay here." Jim said.

Merida looked at Peter's face.

"I will."

She sat down in front of the cage.

"Are you sure?" Jim asked.

Merida nodded.

"Positive."

Jim patted her shoulder and then walked out.

"Merida, please."

Peter's face stared back at her through the glass, but she stared at it coldly.

The way that he was standing, the way that he was holding his hands, the way he was using his voice, all of it was wrong.

"You could never be him. Never."

Peter's mouth twisted into a smirk.

"You don't know that. For all you know, I've always been pretending. Always kept myself acting a certain way because I wanted you to like me. I knew that you wouldn't like the real me, so I had to lie until you started to like who I was pretending to be. This could be the real me."

"Stop it." Merida said.

"Everything could be a lie, and you could be looking at the one truth, right here."

"Stop it!" She said, and she kicked the glass.

"Feisty. I like that." He said, smiling at her.

"You're wrong, you know." Merida panted. "You've made a huge mistake. You can't plant any doubt into my mind of who Peter is, because I know him inside and out. I know him better than anyone."

He closed his eyes, and then smiled.

"All right, you caught me." Jafar said.

He threw himself against the glass.

"But I will never tell you where Peter is, and you will never find him, unless you let me out." He smiled wickedly.

"And I know you'll want to find him as soon as possible, little girl. Just look at the condition I left him in." Jafar held up Peter's arms, turning them around and showing off the cuts and bruises.

"You're sick." Merida spat at him.

He laughed, and Peter's body melted off of him. It disintegrated and then disappeared.

"Not as sick as you'll be when I'm through with you." Jafar twisted his head. "I will admit, it is an impressive cage, but it can only hold my body. Did you not think about my magic?" He smirked. "Insolent girl!"

Merida stared at him, wide eyed. Jafar raised his hands and stared intently at Merida.

Nothing happened.

He stared at his hands, and then at the glass.

"How-?"

"She didn't think about the magic, but I did."

Merida whipped her head around. Tony was leaning against one of the cave walls.

"Hey Curls." He said.

Merida got out a breathy laugh.

"Tony." She said.

He walked up to the glass and stared at Jafar.

"You see, you're not the first person to call this an 'impressive cage'. Do you know who it was built for?"

Jafar looked at the ground, angry.

"A two-ton giant green rage monster." Tony spat out. "We also kept a magic demi-god in it who was most definitely much more powerful than you, and he couldn't get out, either."

Jafar looked up at him, enraged.

"Who are you?"

Tony smiled down at Merida.

"Wanna tell him, Curls?"

She smiled.

"Iron Man."

Tony looked down at her.

"Good answer."

He started to walk away, but then he turned to Merida, holding up his pointer finger.

"One more thing I forgot to mention, I overheard Mr. Beard's little spat with Peter earlier. Peter's through the back of the first cave on the left. It looks like a dead end, but you can push it aside."

Merida stared at Tony, wide-eyed.

"Thanks."

"No problem." He said, and he winked at her.

Merida looked at Jafar and smiled; There were many emotions on his face, but the most prominent was fear.

"I'll be right back." She said, and ran out of the room.

"Guys! Guys! I know where he is!" Merida yelled as she ran down the main hallway.

People began to emerge, a few at a time. Merida rounded the corner into the first cave.

"Merida, that's a dead end, remember?" Jim called out.

"No, it isn't!"

When she reached the "dead end", Merida got onto her knees and groped the walls around it. Her fingers fell into a small hole, and she shoved it aside.

Bright eyes looked up at her.

"Peter!" Merida yelled, wrapping him up in her arms.

"Good job, Mer, you found me." He said.

He sounded exhausted, and she threw her arms around him.

"Please stop getting yourself hurt."

Peter smiled at her.

"No promises."

She laughed and helped him out of the cave.

When they were fully out, everyone crowded around them. Sweet sat him down and began to examine him.

"Slight bruising, some cuts, not too deep, oh." He said looking at Peter's left arm. "I think that's broken."

Peter sucked in a sharp breath.

"How are we going to get him up?" Merida asked, looking at the ladder.

"We're not."

Everyone looked at Sweet.

"What do you mean 'we're not'?" Jim said.

"That's exactly what I mean. We're not. His arm is too damaged for him to climb, and the path is too narrow for any of us to have him cling to our back."

"Sorry, guys." Peter said.

Merida patted his shoulder.

"Don't apologize, Peter, it's not your fault."

Sweet stood up.

"Come on, Peter, let's get you somewhere you can lay down." He looked around. "You guys can all go home now. Jim, can you bring back some supplies for me?"Jim nodded.

"Sure Doc."

He began to climb the ladder. Everyone else stayed where they were.

"Seriously, people, you being here won't make him get better faster."

Slowly, people started to migrate toward the ladder.

"Give me a hand?" Sweet asked, nodding to Merida.

She nodded and they both helped Peter stand up, walking him into the largest sub-cave. Sweet laid him down on the floor, and Merida sat down next to him. Sweet looked at her.

"I'm gonna, uh, go help Jim with the, uh, stuff." He said, and walked away, lightly laughing. Peter smirked at Merida

"Hey Mer?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you know he wasn't me?"

Merida looked down and bit her lip.

"It just wasn't right. He looked just like you, but he just… wasn't you."

"Know me that well, huh?" Peter said, nudging her with his good arm.

Merida smiled at him.

"Well, I do spend most every day with you."

He leaned against her.

"You should keep doing that." Merida smiled at him.

"I will, Peter." Peter made a soft sound. "You should get some rest."

"'S okay. You should get some rest."

Merida laughed lightly, and Peter closed his eyes.

"Goodnight Peter."

"'Night." He said, half asleep.

b

"Peter. Peter wake up." Merida gently shook him.

"Mer?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

She laughed.

"And Doctor Sweet." Sweet said, "I came to patch you up."

Peter sat up against the cave wall.

"All right, Doc. Do your worst."

Sweet began to clean Peter's cuts and bandage them up.

As Merida watched him, she had to admit that the Doctor was skilled at his job. It was as if he was meant for it.

He kept up a nice conversation with Peter, asking him about how his bow shooting was going.

After he had finished the physical examination, Sweet pulled some small capsules out of his pocket.

"Swallow these."

Peter groaned.

"But Sweet-"

Sweet held his free hand up.

"No, Peter, you have to take pain pills."

Peter pulled his eyebrows together.

"It doesn't even hurt that bad."

"Peter, your arm is broken."

He stared at Sweet for a long second.

"Fine."

Peter pouted and took his pills.

Sweet packed up his medical supplies, but left the food and water. He handed a small rectangle to Merida.

"Jim told me to give this to you, just in case you need to call someone."

Merida flipped the phone over in her hands.

"Thank you."

Sweet smiled and walked out of the cave.

"What have we got to eat?" Peter asked.

Merida pulled the basket toward her, handing a bottle of water to Peter. He pulled his eyebrows together.

"What's this for?"

"It's for you to actually swallow your pills."

Peter put on his innocent face.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Merida raised her eyebrows, and Peter sighed.

"Fine."

He took a swing of water.

"It looks like we have sandwiches, berries, crackers, and chocolate cake." Peter opened his mouth to speak. "For desert."

"Come on, Merida. Please?"

Merida mimicked Peter's thinking face.

"Nope."

The rectangle in her hand started to vibrate, and she stared at it.

"Someone's calling, Mer."

"Oh." She said.

She looked at the phone's screen. Jim.

"I'll be right back."

Merida walked into a cave out of hearing distance and answered the phone.

"Jim?" She asked.

"Looks like you figured out how to use the phone." She laughed "How's Peter?"

"Good. Doctor Sweet just came over and took care of him."

"Did you make sure he took his pills?" Merida laughed.

"Yeah, I made him drink water."

"Good."

Jim sounded kind of awkward. There was a small silence.

"Merida, if you want to, I could stay down there with him instead of you. You don't need to stay the entire time."

Merida's hand instinctively reached to twist the phone cord, but dropped when it hit empty air.

"No, it's okay Jim, I don't mind."

There was another moment of silence.

"Just… Just make sure that you take care of yourself, too. Okay?"

Merida was confused. Did Jim not think that she would?

"Yeah, of course I will."

Jim sighed.

"Call me if you guys need anything, okay?"

"'Kay."

"Bye, Mer."

"Bye."

Merida clicked the phone shut and walked back to the cave.

"What was that about?" Peter asked, eating a sandwich.

Merida grabbed some crackers.

"Just Jim making sure we were okay."

"Oh." Peter said, pulling his eyebrows together.

Merida looked at him.

"What?"

Peter chewed thoughtfully.

"It's just, that's not something that he usually does."

"Oh." Merida said. "Well, do you usually get yourself into this much trouble?"

Peter laughed.

"No, I guess not."

Merida laughed, and he looked over at her.

"Hey Merida?"

"Yeah?"

"We're gonna be stuck down here for a while, huh?"

She sighed.

"Yeah."


	17. Chapter Sixteen: Healing

_Hey guys! I know that I said that I was going to release a new chapter every Tuesday and Thursday, but I was sick all last week and wasn't able to. I apologize for the inconvenience, so here's an extra chapter this week to make up for it! Also, I'm going to stick to that schedule as well as I can. Love you guys!_

**Chapter Sixteen: Healing**

"Merida?"

Merida rolled over, groggy.

"Five more minutes." She mumbled into her pillow. She heard nervous laughter.

"Uh, Merida? You have to wake up now. Do you remember where you are?"

Merida opened her eyes.

Yesterday, Jafar had impersonated Peter, but they managed to get him in the cell. The result of his stunt was Peter's broken arm.

She was laying on a cave floor, which made sense. She had gone into the cave across from Peter's to sleep. What didn't make sense was the voice that was talking to her.

"What are you doing down here, Jim?"

Jim sat down next to her and handed her a box.

"I brought you breakfast, and if you don't eat it now, it's going to get cold."

Merida sighed, sat up, and opened the box. Inside was a hearty breakfast of eggs, gravy, sausage, and a biscuit.

"Tiana?" Merida asked.

Jim handed her a fork.

"Yeah."

Merida popped part of a sausage into her mouth.

"What's Peter doing?"

Jim laughed lightly.

"I didn't want to wake him up yet, he needs all of the rest he can get."

Merida raised her eyebrows at him.

"And you woke me up?"

"What? _Someone _had to eat that amazing breakfast." Jim joked.

Merida offered him the fork.

"Want some?"

He eyed it, and then took it.

"Thanks."

He cut off a small piece of a sausage and then gave her back the fork.

Jim let her finish her meal in silence.

"So, why are you really here?"

He looked up at her, trying to look innocent. She sighed.

"Look, I know that you didn't just come to bring me breakfast."

Jim sighed.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Merida raised her eyebrows at him.

"You wanted to make sure that _I _was okay?"

"Hey, just because you don't have a broken arm, that doesn't mean that you are okay. You've been through a lot."

"So have you."

Jim bit the inside of his cheek.

"Not as much as you have."

Merida took a deep breath. He was pretty good at seeing people's emotions.

"I think I'm okay now. Really."

Jim smiled down at her.

"Good."

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Mer?" Her name echoed off the walls of the caves.

"Coming, Peter." She called out. "You wanna go see Peter?"

Jim ran his fingers through his hair.

"I have to be heading back now. See ya later."

He picked up her trash and took it with him. Merida walked into Peter's cave.

"Did you bring me this food?"

Peter had a box exactly like Merida's and filled with the same food.

"No, Jim did."

Peter pulled his eyebrows together.

"Jim was here?"

Merida looked Peter over; He looked like he really wanted to see him.

"Yeah. He had to leave after he brought the food."

"Oh." Peter said.

Merida sat across from him and waited for him to finish his food. When he was done, he put it to the side and smiled up at her.

"So, what are we gonna do today?"

Merida laughed at him.

"You're not going to do anything but rest."

"But Mer!"

Peter's puppy dog face was tempting, but Merida knew that she couldn't let Peter hurt his arm even worse.

"Sorry, Peter, you can't move around. You could hurt yourself again." He pouted.

"Fine. Can we at least play a game?"

Merida rolled her eyes.

"As long as it's a game where you can't hurt yourself."

He made a thinking face.

"How about Twenty Questions?"

Merida rested her head on her hand.

"I don't think I know that one."

Peter smiled.

"It's easy. One person thinks of something, and the other person can ask up to twenty yes or no questions. If they can't guess what it is after the twentieth question, then they lose and the other person gets to think of something again."

Merida wasn't quite sure that she understood, but she felt like she should give Peter what little she could.

"All right. You go first."

"Okay!"

Peter made his thinking face, and then smiled.

"Got something."

Merida tried to think of something that Peter would think of.

"Is it a person?"

"Nope."

That ruled out a lot of things.

"Is it an object?"

"Nu-uh."

Her eyebrows pulled together.

"Is it an animal?"

Peter twisted his mouth.

"I'm not really sure."

Merida stared at him.

"Is it alive…?"

He smiled.

"Yes!"

"Can it talk?"

Peter looked confused.

"Yes and no."

Merida closed her eyes. It was alive, it could talk, and Peter wasn't sure if it was an animal. What did she know that was like that?

"Is it Morph?"

"Yeah!" Peter smiled. "Now it's your turn."

Merida looked up at the ceiling of the cave. What would Peter have a hard time guessing?

"Got one." She said, smiling.

"Is it a person?"

"Yes."

Maybe he would guess it.

"Is she pretty?"

Or maybe not.

"That question doesn't work."

Peter smiled.

"Is _he _pretty?"

"Peter, opinions won't work for you."

"You don't know that."

Merida sighed.

"Some people would think that he's pretty, yes."

"Do _you _think he's pretty?"

"Peter, are you even trying anymore?"

He laughed.

"I just want to know."

Merida sighed.

"I don't think that 'pretty' is the right word…"

"Well, what about handsome?"

Merida blushed. Hopefully he wouldn't be able to guess.

"Yeah."

"Is it Tony?"

Merida started.

"What? No."

Peter smiled.

"Is he old?"

"Depends on how old is old."

"Twenty!"

Merida pulled her eyebrows together. Did he think she was old?

"No, he isn't old."

"Does he have yellow hair?"

"Nope."

Peter made his thinking face, and then looked like he got an idea.

"Is he good at tennis?"

"Peter, how am I supposed to know that?"

"Well, you could."

"Well, I don't."

"Are his hands made of fire?"

_Fire?_

"No."

Peter pulled his eyebrows together.

"Well, that eliminates a whole ton of people."

Merida rolled her eyes.

"Peter, you only have ten questions left."

"Is he tall?"

"You have to stop asking questions that are opinionated."

"Well, is he taller than you?"

"Yes."

"Is he your friend?"

"Yes."

"Is it Doctor Sweet?"

"Peter, Doctor Sweet is older than Twenty."

"Oh, yeah."

He let out a breath.

"Is it Aladdin?"

Merida had to suppress a laugh.

"No. Five more questions, Peter."

He screwed his mouth to the side.

"You're really good at this game."

She smiled.

"Yup."

Peter thought for a little while.

"Do you like him?"

Merida choked on the air she was breathing.

"What?"

"Do you like him."

Peter said, looking at Merida.

"How- How in the world is that going to help you guess who it is."

"I don't know."

She took a breath.

"Peter, I'm not going to answer that."

He smirked.

"Because it's true?"

Merida took another deep, deep breath. Peter waited patiently.

"I'm not answering that either. Can we play a different game?"

He looked confused.

"But we didn't even finish this one."

"What about Slide?"

"Oh, I love Slide!"

She sighed. That was close.

* * *

Merida flipped over onto her belly. She and Peter had been playing games for multiple hours now, and frankly, she was done with them.

"What about Charades?"

"Peter, I don't want to play any more games."

Peter leaned his head against his hand.

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?" He said.

"Go to sleep."

Peter laughed.

"It's not even time to sleep yet. Why would I do that?"

There were footsteps, and Peter and Merida both looked to the door.

"Be right back." Merida said, getting up. Peter leaned against the wall.

"'Kay."

She walked into the hallway and saw Jim.

"Hey." She said, walking toward him.

"Hi."

Merida looked him over. He looked tired, but he was smiling. He leaned against the wall and she could see that he was carrying something.

"What are you doing here?"

"Brought you guys lunch." He said, handing her a bag.

"Oh, thanks. Do you want to go see Peter?"

He smiled.

"Yeah."

The two walked into Peter's cave and saw him laying against the wall, asleep.

Merida motioned for Jim to follow her into the cave that she had been using to sleep in, and they sat down.

"It's good that he's getting his rest." Jim said. Merida nodded.

In the bag were three boxes. Merida looked up at Jim.

"I was going to eat with you guys." He said, running his fingers through his hair.

She handed him a box.

"We can give Peter his later."

She grabbed a box for herself and opened it. Inside was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and a biscuit.

"Is Tiana going to cook all of our meals?" She said, taking a bite.

"I really wouldn't mind if she did. I get a meal out of it, too." They both laughed.

* * *

Peter and Merida had in the cave for three weeks. Jim would visit three times a day to bring food, and if Peter was up, they would all eat together. If Peter wasn't awake, Merida and Jim would eat together and talk until Peter woke up. On occasion, others would visit for a few hours, but never more.

Doctor Sweet visited every few days to make sure that Peter was healing correctly.

"How's the arm feeling?" The Doctor was touching Peter's injured arm lightly.

"Great, Doc." Peter replied, smiling.

Sweet put pressure on different areas of the arm. Merida was going to object, but Peter didn't react.

"All right, Peter, looks like you're okay to go home."

"Yes!" he said, standing up.

"Are you sure?" Merida asked, concerned. She didn't want Peter to hurt his arm trying to get out; That could add weeks on to their stay underground.

"Positive." Sweet said, collecting his supplies. "I'm going to head out now, you and Peter are welcome to, also."

Sweet walked out of the cave, and Peter began walking out, too.

"Come on, Merida, let's go!"

"Hold on, Peter." He looked at her, confused. "Are you sure you can do this?"

"Yeah." He said, smiling. "I would have been out of here a long time ago if it wasn't too tight to fly up. Merida rolled her eyes.

"All right, but if your arm starts to hurt, we're going back down, okay?"

Peter smirked.

"It won't, but okay."

The two made their way to the ladder and He began to climb up. After he had scaled a few rungs, She began to climb.

A few minutes passed.

"See, Mer, I can do this with one hand!" Peter laughed and she sucked in a sharp breath.

"Don't you dare try."

The two climbed in silence for a few minutes.

"Hey, Mer?"

"Yeah Peter?"

He was silent for a few seconds.

"What do you wanna do when we get up there?" She laughed.

"I don't know, I didn't think about it."

They were close to the top now. Peter pulled himself on to the ground, and once Merida reached the top, she did, too.

She looked out across the forest. She didn't want to admit it to Peter, but she was beyond tired.

"Peter?"

He stood up.

"Yeah?"

"I think I just want to go home."

He smiled at her.

"Okay, Mer, I'll take you home."


	18. Chapter Seventeen: Stories, Lemonade

**Chapter Seventeen: Stories, Lemonade, and a New Addition**

Merida rolled over on her bed.

"Peter?"

She sat up, and realized that she was back at her own house.

"Oh."

Yesterday Merida and Peter had climbed out of the underground tunnels, and he had brought her back to her home. She realized that she must have fallen asleep.

She threw herself out of bed and got ready for the day. Once she had taken a shower, gotten dressed, and eaten, she sat down on her couch and sighed.

After a few minutes, two knocks sounded on her door. She jumped up and opened her door, preparing to see Peter. Jim stood on her porch with his hands in his pockets.

"Oh. Hey, Jim." Merida said. "Do you want to come in?"

Jim smiled.

"Yeah, thanks."

Merida closed the door, and the two sat down in her front room.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, leaning against the back of her chair.

"I just wanted to see you." Jim said. "When did you get home?"

"Yesterday. I'm not sure exactly when, I fell asleep pretty soon after, though."

"Good, you need rest."

Merida smiled at him. He was so concerned about her and Peter's well being.

"Thanks. Oh! I still have your phone."

Merida started to get up to get it.

"No, keep it. I made it for you."

Merida looked at him.

"You made it?"

Jim ran his fingers through his hair.

"Yeah. It's for you to keep since you're outside most of the time, anyway."

Merida sat back down in her chair.

"Thank you." She said. "Where's Morph?"

Jim laughed lightly.

"I left him over at Peter's place."

Merida's interest peaked.

"You were at Peter's."

"Yeah, I went over there earlier to talk to him."

Merida nodded. Of course he would want to check on Peter, too, they were friends.

"Hey, Merida…" Jim said, snapping back her attention.

"Yeah?"

He folded his hands under his chin and smirked.

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out later."

Merida smiled.

"Yeah, sure, I'm not doing anything."

Jim stood up.

"Good. Now, I've got to get going. I'll see you around two?"

Merida nodded.

"Yeah. Sure. See ya, Jim."

Jim walked out her front door, and Merida got up and shut it.

Merida looked at the clock on her wall. It was just after ten.

She went to her phone to call Tiana. She was glad that she was going to hang out with Jim later, but she hadn't seen Tiana in days.

The phone rang twice.

"Tiana?"

There was excited laughing over the other end.

"Merida, is that you?"

Merida laughed.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to come over for a while."

"I'll be over in five minutes."

Merida hung up and laughed to herself. If she didn't know better, she would think that Tiana could fly with how fast she was able to get around Wonderland.

She went into her kitchen and pulled out a pitcher. Tiana was going to be so proud of how much she'd improved in drink making.

"Actually, in making anything edible." Merida thought to herself, and then laughed.

She managed to make some lemonade that tasted above average, and she brought it out to her front room.

After she had set it down on the table, Tiana burst through the door and threw her arms around her.

"Oh, honey, it's so good to see you!"

Merida laughed.

"I'm glad to see you, too."

They sat down and Merida poured her the drink. Tiana eyed it suspiciously.

"Is this okay to drink?"

They both laughed.

"Yes, I tasted it this time to make sure."

Tiana sipped it and smiled.

"Not bad."

Merida smiled.

"So, what did I miss?"

Tiana sat up straighter.

"There was a new arrival a few days ago."

Merida smiled. She knew that it probably wasn't someone in her family, but either way, new arrivals were great.

"Her name is Audrey Ramirez. She's a tough little thing from Sweet's old universe. Says that she likes to work with cars and machines, which is good, because we need more of those kind of people."

"How old is she?"

"Seventeen."

Merida smiled, she could be friends with Peter.

The girls drank their lemonade while Merida filled Tiana in on her life in the caves.

"We all appreciate what you did for him, Merida." Tiana said, refilling her glass.

"It was no trouble." Merida replied, smiling.

"I'd bet."

"Tiana!"

The two laughed, and then Merida looked at the clock. It read twelve.

"Expecting someone?"

"Well, not for a few hours. Jim wanted to hang out later."

Tiana raised her eyebrows.

"'Hang out'?"

Merida stared at her for a few seconds, and then what she was implying suddenly dawned on her.

"Tiana, it isn't a date."

"Really?" She asked, crossing her arms. "Then who else is going?"

Merida bit her lip.

"He didn't say, but there are probably other people going."

Tiana stared at her, eyebrows raised.

"Did you really just agree to go on a date without even knowing?"

"Hey! It might not be a date."

"Did you tell Peter?"

Merida furrowed her eyebrows.

"Why would I tell Peter that Jim and I were hanging out?"

"I feel like he'd be really interested in that little fact."

Merida sighed.

"Okay, so if this is a date, and I'm not saying it is, what do I do?"

"Well, what do you want to do?"

Merida rung her hands. Jim seemed nice enough, but did she really want to go on a date with him after everything that had happened?

Then again, it wasn't his fault.

"I… I don't know."

Tiana smiled.

"Well, this is what I think. If you and Jim are the only two people who go, then it's a date." Merida began to interject, but Tiana raised her hands. "You can talk when I'm done."

Merida leaned back into her chair. She wanted so badly to ignore what Tiana just said, but she knew that it probably wouldn't get her anywhere.

"If what you agreed to do is actually a date, you should at least go on it. I'm not saying that you have to go on any more, but one won't kill you."

Merida sighed.

"I guess you're right."

Tiana crossed her legs.

"I still think that you should tell Peter at some point. It's better if he finds out from you than from Jim."

"You're still assuming that it's a date!"

Tiana laughed lightly.

"Yes, I guess I am. If it makes you feel better, you can get ready on your own this time. I have to work a late shift at the restaurant."

Merida smiled.

"Thanks, Tiana."

Tiana stood up.

"It's no trouble, Merida. Just call me tomorrow and tell me what happened, okay?"

Merida laughed and nodded. She closed the door behind Tiana and locked it, and then sank down on a chair and looked at the clock.

"Might as well start getting ready." She mumbled, and then walked into her bedroom.

Merida sat down at her vanity and stared at her reflection. Her hair was messy, she was wearing sweats and a sweater, and she looked tired.

She walked over to her closet and looked through what she had, and then pulled out the dark blue dress that she had worn on her first day in Wonderland.

After she was dressed, she sat down and tried to fix her hair, pulling out the metal brush that Tiana had gotten her. She began to untangle her curls the way that her friends had taught her: Part your hair, start from the bottom on one side, work your way to the top, and then go to the other side.

Merida looked in the mirror and laughed. No matter how much she brushed her hair, it always retained its crazy curls. She shook her head and watched them bounce around her face, and then laughed again.

Merida automatically reached for the necklace that Peter bought her, but then her hand stopped.

Why did it feel wrong to wear the present that Peter had gotten her when she was with Jim?

She put the necklace on and tucked the charm under her collar.

Merida sighed, and then looked down at her feet. Did she need shoes? She thought about it, but then decided that she probably did. She slipped her brown shoes on, and then walked into her front room and sat down.

She looked over at the clock. It read one-fifty.

She tapped her feet, drummed her fingers, and rolled around on her couch.

Merida got up to get a drink, but there was a knock on her door. She froze, and then tried to shake it off.

"No reason to be nervous, right?" She thought as she opened the door.

"Hey." Jim said, smiling.

"Hey." Merida replied.

"You ready?"

Merida laughed.

"Yeah."

She walked out the door and looked around. It was only her and Jim. Did that mean that it was a date?

"What are we doing?" She asked, holding her hands behind her back.

Jim pointed to a vehicle that Merida recognized.

"Solar-surfing."

He led her to the surfer, helped her on, and then kicked it to life.

It rose up into the air, and they started flying faster than Merida had ever in her time in Wonderland.

Merida fell forward on top of Jim, and he steadied her.

"Be careful, there." He said, holding her back up.

"Sorry." She said, looking down.

They were flying higher than she ever remembered being.

"This is amazing!" Merida yelled.

It was like she could see all of the parts of Wonderland she knew.

"Anywhere you wanna land?" Jim shouted over the wind.

She looked down. They were flying over the trees, but there was a small section that was clear.

She pointed at it.

"Down there?"

Jim smiled.

"Sure!"

He flew the solar-surfer down at a dangerous angle, but landed without incident.

They walked off of if laughing.

Merida looked around, and then sat on a rock.

They were in a small clearing with a stream to the side.

"This looks a lot like a place from where I came."

Jim laughed.

"It could be."

Merida looked up at him.

"What?"

"Has no one told you anything? When people from your universe are getting closer to Wonderland, new places appear that are duplicates of ones from it."

Merida looked around, and a huge smile spread across her face. Did this mean that her family was coming soon?

Jim sat down next to her.

They were silent for a few seconds, and then he laughed.

"What?" Merida asked, looking at him.

"We don't really know that much about each other, do we?"

Merida looked up into the sky. There were no clouds in sight, and the shade of blue was perfect.

"No, I guess we don't."

Jim sighed.

"Well, tell me about where you came from."

Merida smiled. She loved talking about her home, and she didn't get to do it as often as she would have liked.

"My family ruled a kingdom called DunBroch, where we had ruled for centuries." She laughed "Well, I guess we still rule it, it's just that I'm not there."

"Tell me about your family."

Jim looked genuinely interested, so Merida continued.

"My father is the king. He is big and has hair like mine, though a lot of it is missing."

She laughed at the memory of seeing her father's bald spot for the first time when she was six. She had thought that it was a monster.

"He also had a missing leg that a bear had eaten a long time ago."

"A bear?"

Merida nodded, and Jim leaned back.

"What century did you live in?"

Merida smiled. Of all of the things that she had come to know in Wonderland, one of them was that time wasn't necessary here because people came from different times.

"The tenth."

Jim let out a huge breath.

"Wow."

Merida smiled.

"Yeah."

He nudged her arm.

"Tell me about the rest of your family."

"Well, my mother is very beautiful. Her hair is brown and straight, and she is the most proper person I have ever met. She and I used to not get along, but we started to a few years ago. I also have three little brothers, all born on the same day, all identical, and all with crazy hair like mine."

They both laughed.

"What about you?"

Jim smiled.

"Well, I have a mother who was beautiful. After my dad left, we were poor, but I managed to become a captain and make some money for her. I didn't have anyone else who was related to me by blood, but I did have some family friends."

Merida laughed.

"What?" Jim asked, looking up at Merida.

"It's just that, well, I thought that I was the only person whose 'mission in life' didn't involve falling in love."

Jim smiled.

"Yeah, what was yours about, anyway?"

Merida looked up at the sky. That seemed like so long ago, then again, she was fifteen when it happened.

"Well, when I was fifteen, the tradition among the surrounding kingdoms was to have each of the eldest princes compete for the hand of the princess."

She ran her fingers through the grass.

"I decided that I didn't want to get married, so I chose to compete for my own hand. Of course, that made my mother furious. I got angry at her, and then I found a witch and asked her to change my fate."

Merida pulled some of the blades of grass out.

"She did change my fate, but not in the way that I wanted."

Merida thought about what had happened to her mother, and how she felt when she thought she had lost her.

"And then what happened?"

Merida looked up at Jim. He looked so interested in what she was saying.

"My mother turned into a bear."

Jim stared at her.

"Like…Like a bear?" Jim made claws with his hands, and Merida laughed.

"Yes, a real bear. We went on a quest to turn her human, for me to fix my mistakes, and it didn't work. Just when we thought that she was going to be a bear forever, she turned back into a human. Our family has never been more close-knit."

She looked down at her fingers.

"Well, had."

Jim smiled at her.

"Well, now it makes sense."

"What?"

"Why you're so brave."

Merida smiled at him. Yes, she was brave.

"Well, what about you? What did you do before you got here?"

Jim ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.

"Well, before I completed my mission, I was kind of a delinquent."

Merida scrunched her eyebrows. A what?

"I did a lot of stuff that got me into trouble."

She nodded, and he continued.

"Growing up, my mother had always told me stories about this place called 'Treasure Planet'. She said that they were just stories, but I… I don't know. I felt like they were real."

He looked down at the ground.

"One night I had a fight with my mother, and I went outside to be alone. I found a man who was dying, and he gave me a map. When I went inside and showed it to my mom and one of her friends (His name is Delbert), we found out that it led to Treasure Planet."

Merida had her face propped up on her hands, and she was leaning close to him. She loved listening to stories.

"My mom's friend agreed to take me on a search for it, and he hired a crew and captain to man the Spaceboat."

He looked at Merida, who was once again confused.

"Basically, a large ship that travels through space. I was put under the charge of the cook, and he worked me really hard."

Merida smiled. Jim explained things very well.

"He ended up teaching me a lot of things though, kinda like…"

He looked up at the sky.

"Anyway, the crew mutinied. The captain, Dilbert, Morph and I ended up on Treasure Planet alone. It took a few days, but we ended up off the planet. That's when I became a captain."

Merida smiled at him.

"And the cook?"

Jim smirked.

"I have no idea."

Merida laughed, and Jim did, too.

"Uh… Jim?"

He looked up at her.

"Yeah?"

Merida cleared her throat. She felt very awkward, but she had to know. If she didn't, she was going to go crazy when she got home.

"Is this a date?"

Jim smiled at her and leaned back on his arms.

"Yeah, I guess it is."


	19. Chapter Eighteen: Instincts

**Chapter Eighteen: Instincts**

Merida sat on her couch, looking at the ceiling.

She had gotten home from her date with Jim a few minutes ago, and she was tired.

After talking by the stream, Jim had taken her flying around for a while until it was time to take her home.

She sighed. The date went well enough, but she felt… guilty.

Peter walked through her door whistling.

"Hey, Mer."

Merida stayed staring at the ceiling, and she felt her stomach turn.

"Hey, Peter."

"How'd the date with Jim go?"

Merida started coughing and then sat up.

"Wh-What?"

Peter smirked.

"What, you think I didn't know? I knew before you knew."

Merida felt her stomach turn. Did that mean that he was okay with it?

"Oh."

Peter picked up her ankles, sat down on the couch next to her, and put her ankles on his lap.

"Yeah, Jim told me that he was gonna ask you, and I bet him that you wouldn't say yes. Too bad you did though, 'cause now I owe him some pie."

Merida laughed.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I didn't realize it was a date when I agreed to go."

She felt a small stab of guilt in her chest. She was confused, what was going on with that?

Peter smiled.

"That means that he didn't really win! I've got to tell him-"

"No!"

Peter looked up at Merida, confused. She cleared her throat.

"I… I don't want him to feel bad."

It was true; She didn't want Jim to think that she didn't want to go on the date with him.

Peter smiled.

"Okay, but you've got to find the pie for me."

She smiled back at him.

"Okay."

Merida tucked her feet under her legs, and Peter put his hands behind his head.

"Well, now it's my turn."

She looked up at him.

"To put your feet up?"

Peter laughed.

"Nope, to take you on a date."

Merida stared at him, and he smiled at her.

"Peter, your bet with Jim is over."

He laughed.

"Yeah, I know. It isn't part of the bet, though. He got to go on one with you, so now it's my turn."

Merida's cheeks turned pink. She thought that Peter knew what a date was before, but now she wasn't quite sure.

"Peter... Do you even know what a date is?"

He nudged her arm.

"Of course I do. It's when a guy asks a pretty girl to go hang out with him for a while because, ya know, he thinks she's pretty."

Merida bit her lip to keep from laughing. That was probably one of best descriptions she'd ever heard of a date.

"So?"

Merida rubbed her arm. She wanted to say yes, but what about Jim?

Peter smiled at her.

"Come on, I promise it'll be fun. You already went somewhere today, so we can do it tomorrow."

She mimicked Peter's thinking face, and he laughed.

"All right."

Peter got up, beaming.

"Great! I'll come get you at," he made a thinking face "five?"

Merida laughed and nodded.

"All right. See ya then."

Peter walked out, and Merida ran to her phone.

"Tiana? I think you need to come back over."

She heard some noises on the other line.

"Five minutes."

* * *

"Wait, what?" Tiana asked, laughing.

"I told you. After my date with Jim, Peter came over and asked me on a date, too."

Tiana was still laughing.

"Is every single guy in Wonderland going to ask you out?"

"Tiana!"

Tiana tried to control her laughing.

"I'm sorry. It's just so funny."

"Why?"

Merida didn't think that it was funny, she thought it was confusing. She still felt guilt rolling through her stomach. Why was that happening?

"You were so set on not getting yourself into a relationship in your old world, and now you like two Wonderland boys."

Merida started to protest, but she didn't know what to say. Did she like them?

"I don't know if I like them."

Tiana folded her hands.

"Well, they definitely like you."

"I don't think Peter asked me on a date because he _likes _me." Merida said "He just thinks it'll be fun, kind of like a game."

There _was_ that one time, when Peter took her to the lake. She was so sure that he liked her then, but he hadn't shown any interest since.

"And I suppose asking him is out of the question?"

Merida shot Tiana a look. She wasn't going to go around asking people if they liked her when she didn't even understand her own feelings.

"Look," Tiana said, looking at Merida. "I think you just need to take your mind off of this."

Merida raised her eyebrows.

"How?"

Tiana drummed her fingers on her thigh.

"Well, I think you would get along with Audrey."

Merida smiled at her.

"Are you sure you're not saying this because you can't stay with her all day tomorrow?"

Tiana raised her hands.

"Hey, I run a busy restaurant!"

Merida laughed.

"Plus, I already told her that you were going to go over tomorrow morning."

Merida swatted her with her hand.

"Just be over there around ten, okay? You'll feel better, and I'll be over at your house later tomorrow, anyway."

"Why?" Merida asked, confused.

"Well, _someone _needs to get you ready for your date."

They both laughed.

* * *

Merida took a deep breath and stared at the house she was walking toward.

It was already almost ten, and she was positive that this was Audrey's house. Tiana had said that she lived by Sweet, and he lived close to the hospital. This was the first house that she came upon.

She knocked on the door and prayed that she was right.

The door swung open, and a short girl looked up at Merida.

She had light brown skin, big brown eyes, and shoulder-length black hair.

"You Merida?"

Merida laughed.

"Yes. Are you Audrey?"

"Yup."

Audrey walked out the door and stood next to Merida with her hands on her hips.

"Looks like we've found the right people. So, what are we doing?"

Merida laughed again.

"We're just going to walk around Wonderland for a while."

"Sounds good, chica."

They began to walk towards town.

"Have you already been to town?"

Audrey rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I've been through all of that 'new-person-tour-stuff'."

"Well, what about the beach?"

Audrey looked up at her.

"No, not there yet."

Merida smiled. It had been easier for her to go back to the beach since Jafar was officially locked up.

"So you came from Sweet's universe, right?"

Audrey laughed.

"Yeah. He and I were on and exploring team together. Best doctor I've ever worked with."

"Well, we've all heard great things about you, too."

Audrey smiled.

"So you know that I'm a mechanic?"

"Yeah, Tiana told me."

Audrey cracked her knuckles.

"Ah, Tiana. I like that girl. She's tough."

She punched the air and Merida laughed.

"That's what I thought when I first met her, too. She's still the same."

By now, the girls were on the path towards Merida's house. Merida pointed down it.

"I live down at the end of that path, if you ever need to find me."

Audrey nodded, and they turned down the path and stopped at the cliff. Now that Merida had been there a few times, she knew that there was a steep path down on the right.

"You okay with climbing a bit?"

Audrey practically threw herself off the cliff's side.

"As long as you are."

The two girls climbed down and landed on the sand. Audrey ran to the water, too k off her shoes, and walked right in. Merida did the same.

"You know, I've never been to a beach before."

Merida picked up rock and threw it across the water.

"I hadn't either before I came here."

Audrey watched the rock skip across the water and then mimicked it.

"You have a pretty good arm." Audrey said, watching her own rock skip down.

"Thanks, you too."

Audrey smiled up at her, and Merida felt the water with her hand.

"So, what year are you from?"

"1914. You?" Audrey answered without missing a beat.

"The tenth century."

Audrey laughed.

"No way! That's so cool. And I thought I was from old times."

Merida laughed.

There was a noise that Merida recognized, and she looked up to see sand flying.

"What the heck is that?" Audrey asked, shielding her eyes.

"Merida?" Jim asked, getting off of his solar-surfer.

"Who are you?" Audrey asked, her hands on her hips.

Merida had to suppress a laugh. She seemed to do that stance a lot.

Jim walked up to her and smirked.

"Well, who are you?"

They stared at each other for a few seconds.

"Audrey." She said, crossing her arms.

"Jim." He said, and he looked at Merida.

"Showing her around?"

"Yeah." Merida said, stepping out of the water.

"This thing is so cool!"

Jim and Merida turned to see Audrey on top of the solar-surfer, inspecting all of its gears and switches.

"Hey, be careful with that, I built that myself!" Jim said, and Audrey looked up at him.

"How?" She asked, her eyes shining.

"I'll tell you if you can get it to start."

Audrey went to work searching for different gears and buttons. Merida put her shoes on.

"Think you can take it from here?" He smirked at her.

"Yeah, I can handle her."

"Hey, Audrey, I've got to go, but Jim's going to be here, okay?"

"Okay." Audrey yelled out, but Merida doubted that she knew what she had said.

Merida walked home, watching Audrey and Jim until she couldn't see them anymore.

Once she was in her house, she looked at the clock. It read one, and she sighed. How did time pass so fast, yet so slow?

Merida quickly decided that a shower was the best thing to do, because she was covered in sand.

She got into her shower, taking extra time to make sure that she was completely clean. She also took an extra twenty minutes to brush out her hair to make it easier for Tiana later.

Once she was out of the shower, she put on stretchy shorts and a white T-shirt, and then sat on her couch until Tiana arrived.

The two girls went into Merida's room and Tiana sat her down on the stool.

"So, do you have a date for tomorrow yet?" Tiana asked, running her fingers through Merida's hair.

Merida stuck her tongue out at the mirror, and Tiana snickered.

"Let me guess, Peter didn't tell you what you guys are doing, right?"

Merida watched her braid the sides of her hair into a crown.

"Yup."

Tiana secured the braids.

"Well, let's go with something practical then."

Tiana walked over to Merida's closet and riffled through her clothing.

"We need to go shopping again…" Tiana mumbled.

Merida rolled her eyes. There was no reason to go shopping; None of her clothing was falling apart.

"Here." Tiana said, pulling out a white blouse that had buttons down the front.

She grabbed a pair of knee-length jean shorts and threw them at Merida with the shirt.

Merida changed into the clothes while Tiana pulled out colorful containers.

"Tiana, I don't think Peter cares if I wear make-up."

Tiana continued to lay out the colors.

"He does. He thinks you look pretty either way, but you look 'different in a pretty way' when you wear it."

Merida colored.

"How would you know that?"

"He told me."

Merida was going to ask when she finds time to talk to Peter, but decided against it. Of course Peter talked to people besides her. She sat down on the stool and closed her eyes.

After about a half an hour, Tiana allowed Merida to look at her reflection.

Her cheeks had light pink dust on them, and her eyelids had light purple colors. Her eyelashes extended farther than normal, and were darker. She looked down at her lips, which were coated in gloss.

"Thanks, Tiana."

"No problem, honey." Tiana said, putting the containers away.

Merida looked up at the clock and gasped. It was already almost five.

"Call me tomorrow." Tiana said, walking out the door.

Merida looked back at her reflection and sighed. She did look nice, and she liked that Tiana had left her hair mostly down. She was thankful for the shorts, too, because they would probably be flying.

She strung on her necklace, and then looked at the clock. Peter would be there to get her any time.

She went to her front room and waited. She was nervous, which she told herself was ridiculous. She hung out with Peter all the time, didn't she?

"But this isn't just hanging out." A little voice in the back of her head said.

She ignored it and tried to quiet the butterflies in her stomach.

After a few minutes of fidgeting, there was a knock at the door. Merida looked at the clock: It was exactly five. She smiled.

She opened the door, and Peter was standing there. He smiled at her.

"I brought you some flowers." He said, handing her the flowers. She looked down at them; They were hand-picked.

"Thank you," She said, smiling at him. "I'll go put these in water. You can come in if you'd like."

Peter stepped into her house. He was wearing black pants and a short sleeved white button down.

Merida smiled. Peter looked nice in dress clothes.

She quickly got the flowers into a vase and put them on her table. Peter smiled at her.

"You look beautiful."

She blushed.

"Thank you." She said.

They walked outside.

"So, where to?"

Peter grabbed her hand.

"Shh, it's a secret."

Peter pulled her off the ground, and they began to fly toward… well, she didn't know. Merida had never been the way that Peter was taking her before.

"Just a bit longer." He said.

When they touched down on the ground, Merida looked around.

They were standing in grass next to a lake.

Peter took her hand and walked her to a dock, where a small rowboat was sitting. He helped her in, and then got in himself and paddled them into the middle of the lake.

Merida looked around. Were they going to be floating around in a boat the whole time?

She tried to think of something to say.

"It's so beautiful out here." She said, and Peter laughed lightly.

"This isn't why I brought you here."

"Then why-"

"Two things," Peter said, smiling at her. "the first is the sunset."

"And the second?"

"You'll know it when you see it."

Merida looked at the sky; There was still a little while until sunset.

"So, where are we?" She asked, looking around.

"Near Ariel's house." Peter said. "There's a lot of Wonderland that you haven't seen before."

Merida nodded. That made sense, didn't it? She mostly stayed in the same places.

"It's a lot easier to see everything when you can fly, you know."

"But I can only fly when I'm with you."

Peter smirked.

"Then I'll just have to take you to see everything."

Merida felt butterflies in her stomach. She knew that it was possible that Peter didn't mean that the way that it sounded, but they were on a date, floating in the middle of a lake, so she couldn't help but wonder.

As the light was fading, Peter pointed to the horizon.

"The sun is setting now."

They watched the sun fall behind the horizon, and then it began.

It started with one, but soon enough, there were hundreds. Paper lanterns floated into the sky and onto the lake.

"How-?"

"Every year on Rapunzel's birthday, paper lanterns fall over the water."

They watched the lights float around them, and Merida looked into the trees. It was pitch black outside, but the lanterns lit up the area for hundreds of feet around.

"Do you like it?" Peter asked, smiling. His eyes looked so hopeful.

"Yes." Merida said.

She turned to look at him, but his face was closer than she thought.

"Hey Merida?"

She felt her stomach turn.

"Yeah?"

"Remember that bet we made?"

She meant to laugh, but a light breath came out.

"Yeah?"

"I want to use my prize now."

Merida tried to smile, but she was too nervous.

"What do you want?"

He smiled slightly.

"Can I have a kiss?"

Merida couldn't even think straight anymore. There were too many feelings bouncing around in her head, and too many things happening in her chest.

She swallowed hard.

She meant to say something, but she couldn't make words come out.

Suddenly, warm lips were pressed against hers.

When they started to go away, her thoughts were still confused, but something was telling her that that wasn't okay.

Her arms pulled the lips back without her telling them to. It's good that they did that, because she couldn't think clearly enough to act on her own. She could feel them smiling, and they slowly pulled away.

"You know, I only asked for one."

Merida felt a blush return to her cheeks.

"Sorry."

"No, Mer, don't apologize."

Merida laughed lightly and smiled. She still felt butterflies knocking around inside of her, but they weren't quite as terrifying now.

Peter sat down where his feet were supposed to go.

"Come 'ere." He said, and he pulled her next to him.

She felt the impulse to lean her head against his shoulder. She was going to ignore it, but decided to trust what her instincts were saying, because they had gotten her this far.

She put her head on his shoulder, and he straightened up.

Her red hair was sprawled out over her face, and he put it behind her back.

"Your hair is crazy, you know that?" He said in a low voice, playing with one of the curls.

"Yeah." She said, and laughed quietly.

They were silent for a while, and Merida began to try and sort through her feelings.

When she had been with Jim, she had felt guilty. She tried to search for some kind of feeling of guilt, but she could only find butterflies.

Peter began to play with her fingers on the hand closest to him.

"I guess you know now, don't you." He said.

She looked down at the hand that he had as he slipped his fingers into it.

"What?" She asked.

Her heart was beating faster than normal, and she was so nervous that she could only get out monosyllables.

"That I like you." He said, looking down at her.

She laughed a shaky laugh and tried to find words.

"I…"

Merida was still staring at their hands. His felt so warm against hers, and it fit perfectly.

"I think I like you, too."


	20. Update

_Hey guys. So, as you can tell, this is not a chapter. Unfortunately, I have come to a stand-still in my writing. I am extremely busy, and have taken on multiple responsibilities that need to be attended to. As of today, the series will be paused, but in no way will it be ended. There are still many chapters to come documenting Merida's adventures. For all I know, there could be a new chapter out next weekend. We'll just have to wait and see, but I promise that I will try my hardest to continue writing this story for you._


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